Mitchell Robinson’s absence to start the season has extended longer than anyone would have thought after it was initially described as “load management.”
But what really is a considerable enough ankle injury to keep him out of the first four games of the 2025-26 season has thrown his availability for the entirety of the Knicks’ first road trip into jeopardy — even after head coach Mike Brown brought him with the team with full expectations of a season debut.
The final game of the road trip is Friday in Chicago against the Bulls, and Robinson is being listed as a game-time decision, despite being a full participant in practice on Thursday.
The 27-year-old was poised to start the year as the Knicks‘ starting center, providing stellar defense and immovable board control that would allow the defensively incapable Karl-Anthony Towns to settle in as the team’s power forward.
That has not been the case through the first four games of the season, and the starting lineup’s shortcomings without Robinson were never more clear than on Tuesday night in Milwaukee against the Bucks, when Giannis Antetokounmpo mopped the floor with Towns to the tune of 37 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists.
It has not helped that Gerschon Yabusele, who was supposed to bolster the frontcourt upon his arrival over the summer, has had a nightmare start in New York.
Things would ultimately stabilize when Robinson returns, but relying on him as a long-term fixture — even for this season with their championship aspirations — is foolhardy. The 7-foot big man has played in a combined 48 games over the last two seasons and has appeared in 70-plus games just once in his first seven NBA campaigns.
