Mitchell Robinson was one of the biggest steals of the Draft some years ago. He emerged as a dominant rim protector with some offensive upside and a nightly double-double threat.
That’s why the Knicks always wanted to hold on to him despite the multiple trade suitors interested in him and his affordable contract.
Now, it’s time for Leon Rose to lock him in for the future and sign him to a contract extension. And, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post, that could happen before the start of the season as long as it’s on a convenient price:
“According to an NBA source, Knicks president Leon Rose is now open to a contract extension for the 23-year-old Robinson before the Oct. 20 season opener as long as it’s not crazy,” started the report.
Berman said that the Knicks are still kind of concerned about whether Robinson’s intensity will take a bump if they give him a lot of guaranteed money, which is why he’s not expected to make as much as Robert Williams III:
“NBA intelligentsia regard the four-year, $54 million contract extension the Celtics lavished last week on center Robert Williams as an outlier and not commensurate with market standards considering Williams’ light résumé.
The Knicks are not believed to want to go that high. One concern will always be whether the New Orleans product will lose a trace of motivation with all that guaranteed money,” Berman added.
Also, Robinson’s injury-proneness also raises some red flags for the Knicks, thus they’d be more comfortable signing him to a 4-year, $44 million kind of deal:
“League insiders consider Robinson’s current value — given his injury-riddled past — more in the four-year, $44 million range. A sweetener is giving Robinson a player option for the fourth year. That pact is essentially a deal that would start a little higher than the mid-level exception in 2022. Next season, Robinson stands to make just $1.8 million after signing a team-friendly four-year deal out of the draft,” the report concluded.
When healthy, Robinson was a huge factor in the Knicks’ surge. His ability to lock down the paint and presence on both ends of the glass came in handily for Tom Thibodeau’s team.
He’s a player with Defensive Player of the Year upside and those don’t grow in trees or come in cheap, so the Knicks will most likely have to take some risks to keep him on board.
