KNICKS ‘FREAK’ SHOW
LAS VEGAS — No rust? Fourteen months is a long time not to play in a five-on-five basketball game, unless you are Mitchell Robinson. The Knicks’ 7-foot center project has floored coach David Fizdale.
“Ma-a-a-n, is he athletic,” Fizdale said of Robinson, whom they selected with the 36th pick of the draft.
After two days of summerleague practice, Fizdale is more impressed with Robinson’s sharpness.
“You would’ve thought he was playing the whole time,” Fizdale said. “That’s how solid he’s been.
“No, I have not seen rust. As crazy as it is. I was just talking to [player developmental director] Craig Robinson about it. I was going to think this kid’s timing would be off or there would be a lot of stuff we have to stop for him and teach. Kid’s got pretty good feel for the game. He’s in great shape. And athletically, he’s a freak. He’s in the 1 percentile of high flyers and runners. There’s just not many guys who are that athletic.”
With Robinson’s intriguing backstory, all eyes will be on the New Orleans product in Saturday’s summer-league opener against Atlanta at UNLV. One of the top recruits coming out of high school, Robinson enrolled at Western Kentucky and dropped out after taking one summer class.
Instead of playing college basketball, he used the time to train in a gym every day with the NBA as his only goal.
At his press conference two weeks ago, Robinson admitted he hadn’t so much as played a five-on-five pickup game, though he had worked out with Pelicans stud Anthony Davis, whom he said helped him with his jump shot. Robinson’s last outing was the Jordan Classic in April 2017.
“Since I’ve been training the whole year, I feel I can put up a good amount of numbers,’’ Robinson said after Thursday’s practice. “I’m very excited — sitting out
and I’m about to start playing again and get back to where I need to be. I trained for this the whole year. I’m pretty sure I can adjust to anything.”
Fizdale said Robinson is like “a blank canvas,” but still made a comparison to Rockets center Clint Capela.
“I want to encourage him to be great at what he’s good at right now,” Fizdale said. “Can we just get him in a game? His game right now is running and jumping. So anything that has to do with that, how good can I make him at that first?”
Knicks president Steve Mills and general manger Scott Perry chose Robinson partly because of the faith they have in Fizdale as a developmental coach. Robinson’s growth will surely be a reflection on Fizdale’s reputation.
“We’re going to be working on jump hooks, post-up game. We’re going to always build that kind of incrementally,” Fizdale said. “But how can we get him a confidence that ‘I can go play in the NBA game right now because I can hang my hat on this.’ Right now it’s his athleticism. Getting him to run the floor every time.
“Getting him to screen at the right angle and to get to the rim with speed every single time. Getting him to be in a stance on every pick-and-roll. Being able to switch on that pick-and-roll and protect the rim. Those little areas, can we make him great at that? And then jump hook, 15-footer, all of that stuff will be built behind that.”
Enes Kanter is expected to start at center this season, and the Knicks re-signed young Luke Kornet as his backup. But the 20-yearold Robinson clearly is the future. The Lakers had mulled taking him at No. 25 and were hoping he dropped to 39. If it weren’t for the Knicks, Robinson would be a teammate of LeBron James.
“He is a fun project,” Fizdale said, “I’ll tell you that.”