Knicks Mailbag: What’s the short-and long-term plan for Mitchell Robinson?

[ad_1]

SNY’s Ian Begley will be responding to Knicks questions from readers. Here’s the latest…

35 games played for Mitchell Robinson this year. Are you taking the OVER or UNDER? – @The__Cooler

A great question, Cooler. Before we get to Mitchell Robinson, the Knicks-Thunder matchup on Friday night is one of the best games of the regular season thus far. Timely test for a Knicks team that has played well amid a softer stretch of the schedule.

The Thunder and Knicks have won a combined 22 straight games coming into Friday’s matchup. New York’s defense on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder approach against Karl-Anthony Towns will be fun to watch.

Now, back to Robinson. Let’s start here with the Knicks center: as of Wednesday, he was not yet cleared to run at full speed. That’s the next significant step for Robinson in his rehab from offseason foot surgery.

Until he clears that hurdle, it’s difficult to say with any certainty when Robinson will be back on the court. But it’s fair to say that he’s not close to a return. If he were close to a return, he’d already be taking contact in a scrimmage setting.

He won’t be cleared for practice before he can get through full speed sprints. Tom Thibodeau believes Robinson will get cleared some time this month, which is the most definitive timetable the Knicks have offered on Robinson. For what it’s worth, multiple people who have seen Robinson over the past few weeks say he’s looking good physically and has been making positive progress in his rehab.

All along, the club has taken a conservative approach with their center. He’s already experienced a significant foot injury in his opposite foot.

There is always a concern when a seven-footer has had surgeries on both feet. So it makes sense for the Knicks to be cautious in their approach with Robinson.

With all that said, I would probably take the under on the Cooler’s 35-game proposition. Even if Robinson returns in mid-January, I don’t think he will play in all of the Knicks’ remaining regular season games. So I think he’d end up with fewer than 35 regular season games played. Obviously, the goal is…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/knicks-mailbag-whats-short-long-174528819.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2025-01-03 17:45:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.