Yes, Mitchell Robinson is leading the NBA in offensive rebounds yet again.
And no, Mike Brown hasn’t seen anything quite like him in his soon-to-be 30-year NBA coaching career.
It shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, but somehow Robinson’s relentless work on the glass continues to amaze both teammates and his new head coach.
The Knicks’ starting center is averaging 8.7 rebounds per game — 6.3 of them coming on the offensive end.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone that has the combination of athleticism, length, nose for the ball and all that that Mitch does,” Brown said after practice at the team’s Tarrytown facility on Friday. “I’ve been around some great offensive rebounders, but I don’t think anybody like Mitch.”
The kicker? Robinson is doing this while playing under a load management protocol that’s limited him to just 16.4 minutes per game.
For context, Moses Malone — the gold standard of offensive rebounding — had two seasons averaging seven or more offensive boards and five more averaging at least five. But Malone logged 35-plus minutes per night in all but one of those campaigns. The same goes for Dennis Rodman, Charles Barkley, and most names atop the NBA’s single-season offensive rebounding leaderboard.
Robinson’s production is defying logic — and, apparently, it’s knocked some sense into New York’s glass magnet Josh Hart.
“I always went back and forth with Mitch, saying I was the best rebounder on the team. I don’t think I was correct on that one,” Hart said, smiling after practice on Friday. “I’m man enough to say I was wrong. But man, Mitch… Mitch is just a freak.”
It’s a small sample size — Robinson has appeared in just three games since returning from his left ankle load management protocol — but the numbers are staggering. No NBA player is within 1.3 offensive boards per game of the Knicks’ big man, despite the next six names on the list (Luke Kornet, Steven Adams, Jalen Duren, Walker Kessler, Donovan Clingan, Giannis Antetokounmpo) all averaging more than 22 minutes a night.
When adjusted for playing time, Robinson is pulling down 13.9 offensive rebounds per 36 minutes.
“Dude is just a monster, honestly. I saw the stat,” said team captain Jalen Brunson. “He affects the game in so many different ways. When shots are going up, he needs two people boxing him out. Then you’ve got Josh flying in, Mikal flying in, OG flying in, KAT flying in — we’re getting another crack at it because of Mitch’s gravity. What he does on both sides of the ball is huge for us.”
ROOM TO IMPROVE
Three-point defense has been a weak spot for the Knicks early on.
“We’re getting a little better with it,” Brown said after practice on Friday. “There’s a couple of things technique-wise that we could do better. Even if you don’t feel like you can get a great contest, still put a hand up and contest — that’s the first thing.
“The second thing is we were doing a great job of protecting one another and scrambling and trying to close out. But sometimes, we’re closing out so hard we’re overrunning guys, and then that side-step dribble three is available.”
The numbers paint an ugly picture: Opponents are hitting nearly 16 threes per game against New York on better than 40 percent shooting, ranking the Knicks second-worst in the NBA in both categories.
“We have to close out better, obviously,” said Brunson. “Being able to contain the ball better is definitely gonna help our group on defense. We’ve gotta stick to our technique and get better at it, and obviously limit the disadvantages on defense.”
Hart said sometimes you can play good defense and shots will still fall — or you can play terrible defense and opponents miss open looks.
“Teams are making shots. It’s the NBA, man — it goes in flows,” he said. “Eight games from now, we could have the best three-point defense and our defense might not even be great, but teams just miss shots.
“As long as we’re flying around, contesting, doing all we can — we’ll live with the outcome, whatever it is.”
