ATLANTA — Mitchell Robinson’s usage has been perplexing – especially to those close to him.
He only played 11 minutes in the Knicks’ 109-108 Game 3 loss to the Hawks Thursday night at State Farm Arena.
His longtime trainer, Marcell Scott, criticized his lack of action.
“Knicks Coach Mike Brown is SCARED to get mad!!!” he posted on his Instagram Story on Friday. “He’s to [sic] nice of a guy to coach the New York Knicks!!! He would rather play OG [Anunoby] at the 5, instead of [Karl-Anthony Towns] and Mitch at the 4 and 5. Nice guys finish last Coach!”
It’s certainly not the first time Scott, who often posts videos of Robinson training with him over offseasons – has spoken out about how the Knicks utilize Robinson.
In December, he posted a caption that said, “Include him in the offense, he will make free throws!” on his Instagram Story. A week before that, he called for Robinson to get more touches on offense.
The Hawks’ Hack-a-Mitch strategy has helped mitigate Robinson’s impact in this series and made it harder for Brown to have Robinson on the floor, particularly at the ends of quarters when Atlanta is close to the penalty. He’s gone 2-for-6 from the line.
Brown, in Game 2 at least, had pivoted to having Robinson play in the beginning of quarters, when the Hawks couldn’t intentionally foul him unless they wanted to play the full quarter in the penalty. And he was effective until largely being on the bench when the Knicks choked away their lead in the fourth quarter of that game. In Game 3, he was largely glued to the bench.
And Brown also explained that he does not want to play Robinson and Towns together, which is what Scott is suggesting.
“Because things are matchup-based,” Brown said on Friday. “If you hypothetically have them both out there, let’s just take their starting five, you put Mitch on [Onyeka] Okongwu, put Jalen [Brunson] hypothetically on Dyson Daniels and then you put KAT on Jalen Johnson. And then OG [Anunoby] on [Nickeil] Alexander-Walker and Josh [Hart] on CJ Mccollum and that’s probably not a good matchup at the end of the day. To play those guys together, it has to fit offensively and it has to fit defensively for it to happen throughout the course of the ball game. At times, it’s a little difficult matchup-wise.”