Just 1 thing blocks path for Mitchell
Let’s imagine Mitchell Robinson wasn’t so foulhappy. Let’s say he mastered the subtleties of defending, on top of his obvious talents for its more brutal elements, and stayed on the floor for more than 30 minutes per game.
How many blocks could the center average?
“Probably around six,” Robinson said. “I feel like I can do around six.”
That probably sounds outrageous to most. Nobody – not even the 7-foot-5 specialist Mark Eaton – reached six per game after blocks became an official stat. Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain probably swatted more, but they were titans among peons in a different era.
Let’s be clear: Robinson will never crack six blocks per game. But it’s certainly an attainable number for him on any given night. At 20 years old, he’s already done it twice – including a nine-block outing in the 12th game of his career. And per 36 minutes this season, the rookie is averaging 4.4 rejections.
The problem is that along with the blocks, come an equal helping of fouls. Robinson can’t stop fouling, and therefore is subject to shorter minutes. But Robinson has improved in that department in February, motivated partially to avoid coach David Fizdale’s punishment of pushups for fouling.
“I’m putting my hands up more, you know,” Robinson said. “Since me and coach got that thing going on where if I get in foul trouble, I got to do push ups — I don’t really like doing push ups. So I try to stay out of foul trouble as much as I can.”
The low point for Robinson was fouling out in consecutive games in January, first in just 16 minutes, then again in only 17. Since then, Robinson has logged 13 straight games without fouling out. He reached 30 minutes for the first time in his career Sunday, when the Knicks shocked the Spurs and Robinson had 15 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks.
“A lot of film work. Work out at the team,” Fizdale said of correcting Robinson’s fouling issues. “And our team challenges him the whole time. They try to do things like the James Harden sweep the ball into the arms. Over and over and over again just to get him to understand if I keep my hands out, I have a chance to block everything. One thing about Mitchell is he’s a fast learner. He is really applying this stuff.”
Still, Fizdale is not yet comfortable starting Robinson because of his propensity to foul. Robinson even acknowledged Monday that it’s harder to mentally focus if he’s in the starting lineup, leading to mistake fouls.
“When I start the game, the energy doesn’t really be there like that,” he said. “I usually get hyped off of teammates. When they start playing and the crowd gets into the game, then I start playing.”
Of all the moves in the Steve Mills/Scott Perry two-year era, drafting Robinson is probably No. 1 on the list. We say ‘probably’ because he remains a project. But the potential certainly exceeds his draft position of No. 36.
Having skipped college to train for the draft, Robinson was a great unknown and flagged for potential character issues. But after four months, the Knicks only feel more confident in their belief they have their own Clint Capela on the roster.
“The way he’s going up and catching those lobs, that’s the part that I think is really Capela-ish,” Fizdale said. The way he protects the rim, the way he runs, I see a lot of that stuff in Mitchell. He’s showing it.”