With the New York Knicks’ blockbuster trade for Karl-Anthony Towns still unofficial — even though the four-time All-Star showed up to team facilities on Monday — team brass, including head coach Tom Thibodeau, had to pretend at least for one more day that the center was not apart of their team.
“I can’t comment on that,” Thibodeau said with a smirk.
For all intents and purposes, for the time being (sillily), he had to pretend that Mitchell Robinson was still the team’s starting center — and that the franchise had been dealt a significant blow when reports surfaced last week that he would not start the 2024-25 season on time.
While multiple reports suggested his debut would not come until December of January, Thibodeau opted not to put a timetable on it.
“There’s no real timeframe for him other than we want to make sure he’s completely healthy before we move forward,” he said. “As we get more information down the road [we’ll make a call]. But we’re going to be patient and take our time with it.
“I don’t want to put any sort of timeframe. When he’s ready to go, he’s ready to go. He’s doing well. I can tell you that. We’re just going to go step-by-step with that.”
Robinson suffered an injury to his ankle during the Knicks’ postseason run, which ruled him out of the remainder of their first-round series victory over the Philadelphia 76ers and required surgery. Initial hopes were that he would be ready for the start of the season.
Of course, missing Robinson for the first few months of the season is not as severe a blow after the Knicks pulled off a mega-deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves to acquire Towns for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and a first-round draft pick.
He will be backed up by Precious Achiuwa and Jericho Sims for the first portion of the regular season until Robinson can return.