{"id":311903,"date":"2025-11-25T02:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/311903\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T02:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:04:09","slug":"mitchell-robinsons-agent-playing-role-in-knicks-centers-load-management-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/311903\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitchell Robinson’s agent playing role in Knicks center’s load management plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Brown revealed last week that Mitchell Robinson\u2019s agent is part of the group dictating the load management program, which is aimed at preserving the center\u2019s long-term health but was also shrouded in mystery to start this season with four consecutive DNPs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[Knicks VP of Sports Medicine Casey Smith] is the one who dictates it along with Mitch and doctors and Mitch\u2019s agent,\u201d Brown said before Wednesday\u2019s victory over the Mavericks. \u201cSo whatever they tell me, I\u2019m just recycling what Casey says to Mitch, but I try to communicate with Mitch as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown has been publicly deferring to Smith<\/a> on Robinson\u2019s minutes restriction for a while, but the reference to the agent was a new wrinkle. It\u2019s also interesting because Robinson, 27, is a free agent after the season as the only Knicks starter on an expiring contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His next deal will be tied to his health, and it\u2019s both telling and wise that the Knicks haven\u2019t been aggressively pursuing an extension as Robinson gets closer to hitting the unrestricted market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s agents are listed as Thad Foucher and Joe Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foucher, a veteran who also represents Knicks backup center Ariel Hukporti, did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robinson, who was ruled out of Monday\u2019s game because of an illness, had fired five agents in two years<\/a> before hiring Foucher and Smith in 2020. They negotiated his four-year, $60 million contract in 2021, which has alternated between a steal and a bad contract for the Knicks \u2014 depending on Robinson\u2019s health and his stretches of poor conditioning and unavailability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May 2024, for instance, Robinson underwent a procedure on his ankle that was initially described as minor. He was supposed to return for the start of the 2024-25 campaign. Instead, he missed the first four months with no explanation other than a reference to a plan prioritizing long-term health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This season, Robinson played in the preseason but was shelved for the first four regular-season games. Again, there were only denials of a setback. He has since been operating on a minutes restriction plan \u2014 which Brown has declined to identify as a minutes restriction, only a load management plan \u2014 and that recently increased to over 20 minutes per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MitchellMitchell Robinson #23 of the New York Knicks defends Anthony Black #0 of the Orlando Magic at mid-court. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Still, Robinson, who is cagey and unrevealing about his injuries and restrictions, has yet to play in both games of a back-to-back set and only once this season logged over 20 minutes heading into Monday\u2019s game against the Nets. He had been used in short bursts while flashing both his elite offensive rebounding and his greatest flaw: poor free-throw shooting<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the close victory in Dallas \u2014 where Robinson bricked two foul shots down the stretch \u2014 Brown said the center was not part of the regular crunch-time rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he\u2019s got to make free throws. We have a rotation and most times in the rotation at the end of games, Josh [Hart] is going to be out there [at power forward with Karl-Anthony Towns at center],\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo [Robinson] won\u2019t be out there a ton, but if we need a rebound, he\u2019s going to be out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

None of this seems conducive to a long-term, lucrative deal in free agency. But if Robinson\u2019s agent is involved in when the center plays or doesn\u2019t, the next contract is probably factoring into decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Robinson has repeated, the goal is to be healthy when it really matters \u2014 in the playoffs and beyond, including during summer negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was [frustrating] at first, but after thinking about it a lot, obviously I don\u2019t want to miss no playoffs or later on in the future,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cWhatever\u2019s best, just going to stick to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Brown revealed last week that Mitchell Robinson\u2019s agent is part of the group dictating the load management…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[25161,355,361,99],"class_list":["post-311903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}