{"id":377713,"date":"2026-10-20T08:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/377713\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T08:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:46:15","slug":"how-things-will-look-different-for-the-knicks-without-mitchell-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/377713\/","title":{"rendered":"How things will look different for the Knicks without Mitchell Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knicks will get their first glimpse of life without Mitchell Robinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After eight years with Robinson on the roster \u2014 though not always on the active list \u2014 New York faces the Sixers in Tuesday\u2019s opener with Andre Drummond as the backup center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is by far the biggest change<\/a> from last season\u2019s championship-winning roster and therefore will be under the microscope when Drummond faces his former team from Philly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMitch [who signed with the Celtics in free agency] is a great player. We\u2019re not bringing Andre in here to quote-unquote be Mitch,\u201d coach Mike Brown told The Post\u2019s Steve Serby<\/a>. \u201cAndre\u2019s going to be Andre, but that means everybody else has to give a little bit more defensively, and has to give a little bit more when it comes to offensive and defensive rebounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drummond\u2019s greatest strength, throughout a lengthy career, was rebounding. But he\u2019s now past his prime at 33 years old and replacing the NBA\u2019s best offensive rebounder in Robinson.<\/p>\n

The Knicks entered camp without a third center after Karl-Anthony Towns and Drummond, opening up a competition that ended with James Wiseman as the winner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wiseman is a former No. 2 pick and draft bust with the Golden State Warriors, but a superb athlete who always had a fan in Mike Brown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AndreAndre Drummond #0 of the New York Knicks dunks against the Toronto Raptors during the fourth quarter of a preseason game at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brown was the lead assistant at Golden State when Wiseman was drafted there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a different situation with the Knicks,\u201d Brown said. \u201cYou come in as No. 2 pick in the draft with Golden State and you\u2019re talented and skilled as he is and it can be tough on you because of expectations. Not just from the media and fans but sometimes your teammates and coaches and rest of the organization and if it\u2019s hard for certain individuals to live up to. \u2026 With this situation, it\u2019s \u2014 OK, he\u2019s been around the block, he\u2019s experienced adversity. We\u2019re not looking for him to start or fight for a starting position. We\u2019re not necessarily looking for him to come in and be a backup. He has the luxury of growing at his own pace without much pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sixers also have frontcourt questions after their backup, Ariel Hukporti, tore his Achilles in the preseason opener. Hukporti was the Knicks third-string center last season but left in free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joel Embiid\u2019s backup is Adem Bona, who will have to deal with Drummond, his teammate last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks will get their first glimpse of life without Mitchell Robinson.\u00a0 After eight years with Robinson on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30248,138277,1557,21,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":["post-377713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-andre-drummond","tag-james-wiseman","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}