Mitchell Robinson, Knicks Not Close On Extension Discussions

[RealGM Wiretap]

The New York Knicks have had multiple conversations with Mitchell Robinson on a contract extension this season.

The Knicks can offer Robinson an extension of four years and $48 million. Sources told SNY that the discussions were "not close" on terms.

Robinson will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason and is represented by Thad Foucher of Wasserman.

Via Ian Begley/SNY.tv

[bockingknickers]

Hasn’t gotten better, can’t stay out of foul trouble or quite literally on his feet. 50% of plays he’s the ground, really had some high hopes for the guy I understand he wants to get paid but what ever happened to earning it.

Glad they found his father.

[niha17]

plus injuries

[TheCage4]

The Knicks play 4 on 5 offensively whenever Robinson or Noel are on the floor.

[br7knicks]

Then stop getting hurt, and try doing anything on offense outside of lob

[njknicks]

In 4 seasons -- Mitchell Robinson has :

* Shown zero offensive skills
* Has not developed a single offensive go to move
* Unable to score beyond 2 feet
* Constantly injured
* Horrendous free throw shooter
* Basketball IQ / Hunger inconsistent ( even as a starter after 4 seasons )
* Inability anchor the defense consistently

Would be comical to give him a contract offer - Knicks should package him in a sign and trade.

Jericho Sims has shown much better promise in his short stint at a fraction of price tag.

[Rashidi]

[quote="njknicks"]In 4 seasons -- Mitchell Robinson has :

* Shown zero offensive skills
* Has not developed a single offensive go to move
* Unable to score beyond 2 feet
* Constantly injured
* Horrendous free throw shooter
* Basketball IQ / Hunger inconsistent ( even as a starter after 4 seasons )
* Inability anchor the defense consistently

Would be comical to give him a contract offer - Knicks should package him in a sign and trade.

Jericho Sims has shown much better promise in his short stint at a fraction of price tag.[/quote]

Imagine typing this all out and then using a fringe prospect as your selling point.

[knicks94]

Who cares if he receives an extension? The Knicks will struggle to be relevant with or without Mitch for the foreseeable future.

[njknicks]

In 4 seasons -- Mitchell Robinson has :

* Shown zero offensive skills
* Has not developed a single offensive go to move
* Unable to score beyond 2 feet
* Constantly injured
* Horrendous free throw shooter
* Basketball IQ / Hunger inconsistent ( even as a starter after 4 seasons )
* Inability anchor the defense consistently

Would be comical to give him a contract offer - Knicks should package him in a sign and trade.

Jericho Sims has shown much better promise in his short stint at a fraction of price tag.

Imagine typing this all out and then using a fringe prospect as your selling point.

Selling point is sign & trade for asset(s) + keeping a prospect w/same skillset @ fraction of cost

[moocow007]

The Knicks play 4 on 5 offensively whenever Robinson or Noel are on the floor.

Umm...you might be being too kind there. Most of the time it's Randle and Barrett going 2 on 5...with Randle serving the role as the Knicks primary ball handler and assists man. Yes, that's how easy the Knicks offense is to defend.

[moocow007]

In 4 seasons -- Mitchell Robinson has :

* Shown zero offensive skills
* Has not developed a single offensive go to move
* Unable to score beyond 2 feet
* Constantly injured
* Horrendous free throw shooter
* Basketball IQ / Hunger inconsistent ( even as a starter after 4 seasons )
* Inability anchor the defense consistently

Would be comical to give him a contract offer - Knicks should package him in a sign and trade.

Jericho Sims has shown much better promise in his short stint at a fraction of price tag.

Jericho Sims has averaged just 1ppg and 2.1rpg in 7.7mpg across just 20 games (most of which were garbage time). Not sure that he's shown anything that says that he's a viable replacement for Robinson.

Now, doesn't mean that they should keep Robinson at all costs or that Robinson is going to turn into the next Bill Russell...or even Clint Capela but the Knicks brain trust have basically painted themselves into a corner with Robinson. They don't have the cap space to sign a comparable replacement thanks in part to overpaying a pretty much mostly injured and even more zero dimensional Nerlens Noel to return and don't really have any viable options to replace Robinson. The news that contract extension talks have basically been going nowhere for a while now, their best bet (to gain some value) may have been to trade Robinson before the deadline. Now? They very well could lose him for nothing OR have to likely overpay him to bring him back. Detroit is the team that has been rumored to be the most interested (which the Knicks would have been well aware of) and the Pistons have plenty of cap space (so don't need a sign and trade with the Knicks) and a history of not being afraid to overpay (which likely means if the Knicks want him back they'll have to...at leas...match what the Pistons will offer him).

More and more this iteration of the Knicks FO has shown that they aren't anymore skilled that previous front office iterations the Knicks have had in terms of being able to figure out a way to turn this franchise around. Not unexpected considering Leon Rose has absolutely no experience running a NBA front office much less a successful one.

[ABOVE_THE_RIM]

The organization’s lack of player development and ability to obtain a true point guard have failed this team and Mitch.

There is no logical reason why they haven’t paired him with a shooting coach to redesign his shooting form and big man coach to teach him post moves and footwork.

Mitch has been winging it for 4 years off of pure natural physical ability. He has wing ball handling abilities but that is all muted due to the Knicks’ atrocious offensive system or lack thereof and no true point guard play.

The man has had multiple coaches and agents since he joined the league and probably craves stability. That being said unless they trade Julius and or fire Thibs, I don’t see any scenario where Mitch stays a Knick.

But in all honesty, if Sim’s gains more confidence and playing time he has more potential than Mitch due to his superior physique, durability and basketball iq.

[Rashidi]

Selling point is sign & trade for asset(s) + keeping a prospect w/same skillset @ fraction of cost

Sims isn't a Prospect. He's a Two-Way player for a reason.

Ignoring the obvious differences in their on-court value (at least to most), Sims is 200 days younger than Mitchell Robinson, with about 3% of the NBA experience that Robinson has (153 minutes versus 5,019).

You would make a great GM for the Shanghai Sharks.

[Rashidi]

But in all honesty, if Sim’s gains more confidence and playing time he has more potential than Mitch due to his superior physique, durability and basketball iq.

If any of that were true, Sims would play ahead of Taj Gibson.

Sims had 0 points (1 FGA in 18 minutes) and 6 fouls against the Sixers in his last game.
He had 0 points (0 FGA in 16 minutes) in the game before that
Please tell us more about Sims "superior" basketball IQ as a 23-year old.
Potential? Dude is already at his ceiling.

Can't wait until this crowd sees Luka Samanic play, they'll be ready to give him Randle's job.

[meekrab]

Regardless of whether Robinson is good or not, the teams are really screwing themselves over with the extension rules in the CBA, there's no reason why a team should be so limited in the amount they can offer early. All it's doing is making players more likely to hit free agency. For example, the Bulls couldn't offer LaVine a maximum deal extension after this season during last offseason, because the CBA limits you to a 20% raise or 120% of the average salary.

[njknicks]

Selling point is sign & trade for asset(s) + keeping a prospect w/same skillset @ fraction of cost

Sims isn't a Prospect. He's a Two-Way player for a reason.

Ignoring the obvious differences in their on-court value (at least to most), Sims is 200 days younger than Mitchell Robinson, with about 3% of the NBA experience that Robinson has (153 minutes versus 5,019).

You would make a great GM for the Shanghai Sharks.

We all have to start somewhere ; )

[njknicks]

But in all honesty, if Sim’s gains more confidence and playing time he has more potential than Mitch due to his superior physique, durability and basketball iq.

If any of that were true, Sims would play ahead of Taj Gibson.

Sims had 0 points (1 FGA in 18 minutes) and 6 fouls against the Sixers in his last game.
He had 0 points (0 FGA in 16 minutes) in the game before that
Please tell us more about Sims "superior" basketball IQ as a 23-year old.
Potential? Dude is already at his ceiling.

Can't wait until this crowd sees Luka Samanic play, they'll be ready to give him Randle's job.

Sims has played 20 games in the NBA - total ... a rookie ... 7mpg : no player reaches their ceiling the last 30 games of year 1.
Point is that whether it is Toppin, McBride, Reddish or any young player ... you need playing time to flourish.

Knicks are clearly out of the playoffs, they need to develop their younger players -- the last 20 games should be about giving opportunities & not stunting the growth of their roster for the future.

[njknicks]

In 4 seasons -- Mitchell Robinson has :

* Shown zero offensive skills
* Has not developed a single offensive go to move
* Unable to score beyond 2 feet
* Constantly injured
* Horrendous free throw shooter
* Basketball IQ / Hunger inconsistent ( even as a starter after 4 seasons )
* Inability anchor the defense consistently

Would be comical to give him a contract offer - Knicks should package him in a sign and trade.

Jericho Sims has shown much better promise in his short stint at a fraction of price tag.

Jericho Sims has averaged just 1ppg and 2.1rpg in 7.7mpg across just 20 games (most of which were garbage time). Not sure that he's shown anything that says that he's a viable replacement for Robinson.

Now, doesn't mean that they should keep Robinson at all costs or that Robinson is going to turn into the next Bill Russell...or even Clint Capela but the Knicks brain trust have basically painted themselves into a corner with Robinson. They don't have the cap space to sign a comparable replacement thanks in part to overpaying a pretty much mostly injured and even more zero dimensional Nerlens Noel to return and don't really have any viable options to replace Robinson. The news that contract extension talks have basically been going nowhere for a while now, their best bet (to gain some value) may have been to trade Robinson before the deadline. Now? They very well could lose him for nothing OR have to likely overpay him to bring him back. Detroit is the team that has been rumored to be the most interested (which the Knicks would have been well aware of) and the Pistons have plenty of cap space (so don't need a sign and trade with the Knicks) and a history of not being afraid to overpay (which likely means if the Knicks want him back they'll have to...at leas...match what the Pistons will offer him).

More and more this iteration of the Knicks FO has shown that they aren't anymore skilled that previous front office iterations the Knicks have had in terms of being able to figure out a way to turn this franchise around. Not unexpected considering Leon Rose has absolutely no experience running a NBA front office much less a successful one.

Agree with your points about the Knicks FO -- all of their decisions are based on if Leon Rose has previously represented the player / hiring or whether their from U. Kentucky. Anything that is outside of those two represents a risk to Leon Rose that he does not want to take out. It's all about familiarity and comfort for this FO. To grow a franchise, you have to make uncomfortable decision - like hiring a coach that you have not represented as an agent, drafting players that are not necessarily associated with UK, hiring assistant coaches that can actually replace Coach Thibs given his penchant for playing veterans / lack of offensive strategy / lackluster rotation.

Regarding Robinson situation -- its not about having Sims replace Robinson, its about not overpaying for Robinson's services when he has not warranted a big contract. Make it a heavily incentivized contract with team options to ensure the pressure is on him to perform. Otherwise do a sign & trade to fill gaps in the roster (i.e. legit pg, center who can consistently score 10pts).

Regarding Sims -- its about giving all your young players an opportunity to showcase / develop their skillset. The Knicks are going nowhere this season, the focus should be all about evaluating the roster to see if you have a trade asset or a long-term keeper. In Sims case, he could very well be a solid backup center for a fraction of the price. In Toppins case, until he gets consistent minutes, the Knicks will never know if they have a legit starter or a trade candidate .... Cam Reddish could be a their next coveted wing or 6th man supreme : needs playing time ... same with Deuce McBride / Quickley : backup pgs / sgs or trade candidates.

Let's hope they make bold decisions in the offseason to steer the franchise in the right direction.