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When the Knicks lost Mitchell Robinson in the offseason, there was not only a sense of mourning for losing the services of the longest-tenured Knick right after a championship, but also in the sense of what he provided on the court.
Even with his injury-prone nature, Robinson was a premier rim protector and an anchor for the Knicks’ defense whenever he was on the court, which would be enough of an asset on his own, but the biggest asset he provided was something entirely different.
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As we all came to know and love, he is simply the best offensive rebounder of this generation and one of the best rebounders, period, in the NBA. His innate ability to gobble up boards helped turbocharge an offense that already had plenty of offensive weapons, but would sometimes struggle with inefficiency.
For several years now, the Knicks have built their offense around the expectation of extra possessions. They’ve game-planned to win games by simply getting more opportunities to score than their opponents by grabbing more rebounds and committing fewer turnovers. With Robinson gone, the former was in serious danger, even if the team signed Andre Drummond to bandage it.
Through 10 games this season, though, they seem to have not missed a beat.
The Knicks are impressively the No. 1 rebounding team in basketball so far. That’s powered by Drummond not missing a beat with his usual rebounding prowess, but also an elevation in the team’s process and scheme.
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Karl-Anthony Towns, historically a great rebounding center, leads the NBA with a staggering 13.8 rebounds per game. While his defensive strides have been the most encouraging part of the start of this season, he’s been a huge part of winning the possession battle by hitting another level with a 36.6 DREB%, which also leads the league.
As a team, the Knicks have hauled in 55.5 percent of available rebounds, 73 percent of defensive rebounds, and 38.8 percent of offensive rebounds, all leading the NBA. They’ve done this despite routinely having smaller lineups on the court.
Over the last two years, the Knicks were an elite rebounding team, especially thanks to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/even-post-mitchell-robinson-knicks-181500678.html
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Publish date : 2026-11-11 18:15:00
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