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The New York Knicks currently find themselves on a two-game winning streak and look to be heading into the 2023 NBA All-Star break with momentum on their side, but this is not to say everything’s all sunshine and rainbows in the Big Apple.
Tom Thibodeau’s club has been without their defensive anchor Mitchell Robinson since fracturing his thumb on January 18 and, though the initial timeline for his absence was projected to be a minimum of three weeks, now closing in on one month since the injury SNY’s Ian Begley indicated in a February 13 tweet that the big could remain sidelined well beyond these previous expectations.
“Mitchell Robinson hasn’t been cleared for contact yet. But he’s making progress. Robinson was on court with Othella Harrington a few minutes ago working out. Knicks will send people with Robinson during the All Star break if he doesn’t stay in NY during break to continue rehab,” Begley tweeted.
Sans Robinson in the lineup, the Knicks have relied on Isaiah Hartenstein and sophomore Jericho Sims to take over a large chunk of these vacated minutes at the pivot and, though the team has managed to stay afloat with this shakeup (have gone 7-6 since their mid-January bout against Washington), they have unsurprisingly seen their defensive production drop from being ranked 11th-best in the association to the fifth-worst during this span.
Before going down with the right thumb ailment, Robinson was producing admirably for New York, as he was posting impressive per-game averages of 7.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks on 67.4% shooting from the field whilst sporting a team-best defensive box plus-minus rating of 1.6.
New Knicks Wing Showing His Worth
The absence of Robinson has certainly hurt the Knicks, particularly from a defensive and rebounding perspective, but, fortunately, their trade deadline acquisition Josh Hart has shown that he’s capable of helping in these aforementioned areas already during his stint with New York.
Since being acquired by the organization on February 8, the wing has suited up on two separate occasions and, rather quickly, has earned the love and admiration of the franchise’s faithful followers with his on-court production.
Putting forth high-end efforts on both sides of the ball, Hart has been playing lights out for the Knicks during these early stages of his new-found tenure as he’s averaging 19.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.5 steals per game on 65.0% shooting from the floor and 66.7% shooting from distance.
On top of this, he’s sporting a defensive rating of 108 and a defensive box plus-minus of 5.4, both team-highs.
As early signs will suggest, Hart teaming up with the soon-returning Robinson could prove to have an incredibly positive impact on the club’s production on the defensive end and in the rebounding department as they look to make a push for the 2023 postseason.
Knicks Guard Accepts His Fate
Though rumors heading into the February 9 deadline suggested that the Knicks were looking to move on from guard Derrick Rose, as of this writing he still finds himself donning the orange and blue threads and Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News recently shared in a February 11 piece that the veteran is simply just looking to make the most of his current situation with the team moving forward.
“I’m still here,” Rose said. “So my mindset has to be, ‘OK, I’m gonna be here.’”
While Rose is suggesting that his focus will now be on staying in New York for the remainder of this season, Bondy did go on to note in the piece that there have been rumblings suggesting that the Knicks still could consider buying out the point guard in the near future.
Should this ultimately happen, there are bound to be several teams that will end up looking to scoop up the former All-Star off the open market, with perhaps the Milwaukee Bucks serving as one of the more noteworthy clubs to have already expressed interest in his services.
Currently in the second season of a three-year, $43.5 million contract, the point guard is posting per-game averages of 5.8 points, 1.8 assists, and 1.5 rebounds and, despite a complicated situation with the organization, Rose has remained a true professional and has served as a leader for his teammates.
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