With Mitchell Robinson out, Knicks' deep bench is becoming shallow quickly
Sometimes slogans are just words. And sometimes they are put to the test. For the Knicks, the mantra preached by Tom Thibodeau of, “next man up,” has been put to the test throughout the season and now, as the Knicks were readying for Wednesday night’s Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Indiana Pacers it was in play again.
The Knicks got the news Tuesday night that Mitchell Robinson would be lost for the remainder of the season after testing revealed a stress reaction injury in the left ankle, joining Julius Randle and Bojan Bogdanovic as rotation pieces lost as the team has embarked on a quest with high hopes this postseason.
“It’s sad, especially from like a personal standpoint,” Isaiah Hartenstein said. “We’re close. Knowing what he had to go through to get back, even when he was playing, he was giving us everything he had. I think without him, we wouldn’t have won the Philly series. It’s sad, but at this point, we’ve gotta be there to support him. Basketball wise, really it’s just next man up. We’ve gone through this all year. I think that’s something that gives us confidence. We’ve gone through this a million times. So it’s sad but I think it helps us now when we have something like this happen.”
The next man up in this case is Precious Achiuwa, who stepped forward at times this season — and in the postseason. Robinson missed 50 straight games this season after undergoing left ankle surgery, returning to play in 10 of the last 11 regular-season games and six of the first seven playoff games. Achiuwa played a key role in the game Robinson missed against Philadelphia in the first round but didn’t play in the next two games of that series and played just four minutes Monday night in the opener of this series.
But Achiuwa, with his quickness and athleticism, really a power forward, fits nicely in the rotation against the Pacers who run the floor and don’t have a center who attacks the rim. But he did acquit himself well against Joel Embiid in the first round.
“I mean, a completely different team, a completely different style of play,” Achiuwa said. “A lot faster in terms of pace. If I’m not mistaken the best offense in the history of the game, or one of the best. Completely different style of play. So we’ve just got to adjust, play fast. Match their energy in transition and stuff like that, be able to get back in transition.
“I don’t really see it as a good or bad matchup. Just a completely different style of play. I definitely can adjust to guard a player like that. In the series before, just being able to guard a player like Joel. This is a completely different style of player. So it’s making adjustments in the way he plays.”
The Knicks all felt for Robinson, who worked to get back from the surgery and never appeared to be back to the form that he displayed in the first 21 games of the season when he was by far the most prolific offensive rebounder in the NBA and continued his ascent as one of the top defensive centers in the game. In the Philadelphia series, he injured the ankle again when Embiid fell on him and never was the same.
“It's unfortunate,” Thibodeau said. “He’s been through this before. Just go through the rehab and you feel for him, but it’s part of the game and he’ll come back stronger than ever. I don't know, like exactly when it happened. He went for testing in the afternoon yesterday. It's a stress reaction injury. So just wanna let it calm down. … He gave us everything he had. That’s all you can ask as a player. And what he gave us what tremendous.
“That's been our challenge all season. So obviously Precious and Jericho (Sims) are available and they've filled in before and they've done a great job. So next man, get in there and get the job done.”
Next man up — definitely not just a slogan now. The Knicks deep rotation has definitely been cut down — just consider that Hartenstein, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo were coming off the bench to start the season.
“I think first of all you have to give a lot of respect to Leon (Rose),” Hartenstein said. “A lot of organizations maybe wouldn’t have the opportunity to have a next man, a next man, a next man, a next man. It think you have to give a lot of respect for building a team where you can still do that. Just the players in our locker room, Thibs, we’re always in the present moment, whatever we have, we have at that point. So that’s how we look at it.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
