Mitchell Robinson injury: Without their rim protector, Knicks will have to do things differently |Max Sporty|

When healthy, Mitchell Robinson is a game changer. For the first six weeks of the 2023-24 season, the 7-footer owned the paint on both ends for the New York Knicks. No one in the NBA grabbed more offensive rebounds, and few centers were better as a lob threat or rim protector. Robinson didn’t block shots as often as he did earlier in his career, but that was because he wasn’t. chasing bar as he used to. He developed into one of the league’s best drop defenders, an intimidating presence who could no longer be easily lured into cheap fouls or tricked into leaving his feet.

Then Robinson suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle. He had surgery, missed more than three months, returned in a smaller role and then injured the same ankle in the playoffs. Robinson needed surgery again, and Yaron Weitzman reported Monday that he won’t be on the court this season until December or January. This is a big blow for the Knicks, who lost center Isaiah Hartenstein to the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency. And that means they have to do things differently on defense.

Under coach Tom Thibodeau over the past four seasons, New York has typically played a conservative style on defense. This was not the kind of team that fights everywhere; it tries to stay out of rotation and keep its bigs around the basket. When Robinson got hurt last December, the Knicks could turn to Hartenstein — a master of drop coverage and an elite paint defender in his own right — and keep their base defense the same. They don’t have that luxury this time, but Thibodeau has a few different options.

How many balls will we see?

Thibodeau mostly stayed away from centerless lineups in New York, but, in interview with NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner last week, he said the team would have to replace Hartenstein “by committee,” which could mean it will look less conventional.

“We’re going to look at a few different things because we have versatility,” Thibodeau said. “We could see Julius [Randle] more at 5. I don’t want to do that for long stretches, it would take its toll, but to have him do it for 10 or 15 minutes, I think he can do it well. He would also create many [offensive] advantages.”

Randle might be the nominal 5, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’d be the one matched up with the opposing center on defense. OG Anunoby has plenty of experience with this from his years with the Toronto Raptors, who played an aggressive, chaotic style of small ball under coach Nick Nurse. If and when the Knicks play like this, however, their success won’t be determined by how well they defend bigs one-on-one. It will be determined by how they cover for each other.

When New York gets smaller, will it willingly put itself in scramble mode more often, trusting that it has enough speed and athleticism to make it viable? Without a traditional 5 on the floor, there will be more onus on the wings to challenge shots and secure defensive rebounds. The Knicks can throw out some pretty shifty lineups, but, to avoid mismatches, they’ll need to be locked into pre-shifting, scrambling and knowing when no change, all of which require communication.

In theory, New York could start and/or close games with Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, Mikal Bridges, Anunoby and Randle on the floor. It could try all sorts of other combinations with Josh Hart and/or Deuce McBride as well. If the Knicks are going to do this, though, they need to really commit to it: play fast, force turnovers, make opponents uncomfortable and take advantage of their spacing.

What about Achiuwa?

Achiuwa has mostly been a center in the NBA, but he’s only 6-foot-8 and is incredibly light on his feet. He can play in a drop, but he is not as good at it as, say, Robinson or Hartenstein. If he is the opening night starter at center, New York could — and probably should — decide to play a more aggressive style of defense. He can guard in the pick-and-roll and cover a ton of ground in a rotation.

In fact, the best recent example of the Knicks playing a small-ball style featured Achiuwa under center. In Game 4 of their first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers five months ago, Hartenstein committed his fifth foul in the third quarter. Robinson was gone, so Thibodeau replaced Achiuwa inside, made Anunoby the primary defender against Joel Embiid and basically let them go wild. New York double-teamed Embiid continuously, and it made the Sixers confused, forcing them to play deep in the shot clock and get a win on the road.

If the Knicks start Achiuwa alongside Randle and Anunoby, their spacing wouldn’t get the boost it would have with a true smallball unit, but they would have more size and more rebounding, without sacrificing defensive versatility.

Is this Sims the best shot?

Fun fact: After Robinson’s stress fracture last December, Hartenstein didn’t immediately break into the starting lineup. Initially, Thibodeau went with Jericho Sims, so he could keep Hartenstein with the second unit. If New York wants to keep its playstyle as much as possible, it could put Sims back in that starting spot. He’s a few inches shorter than Robinson, but he’s a few inches taller than Achiuwa and, importantly, much more bouncy, so he’s much more of a lob threat when rolling to the basket.

Offensively, it’s easy to make a case for Sims to play with the first unit. He can generate extra possessions and set penalty screens. He’s not on Hartenstein’s level as a playmaker, but the Knicks can also use him on dribble handoffs.

Defensively, there are compromises. For a guy his size, Sims is extremely mobile but hasn’t been particularly effective defending pick-and-rolls in drops. Like Achiuwa, he is most disruptive when he is allowed to play up at the level of the screen.

Unless Sims makes a leap as an option defender, the Knicks will likely have to change the way they defend as a team, at least while Robinson is gone. This might not be particularly smooth — more switching and shuffling doesn’t necessarily sit well with Brunson or Randle — and it might involve some experimentation, but the glass-half-full view is that it could give them more scheme and alignment -versatility. down the line Last year’s team had to reinvent itself on the fly due to mid-season injuries; at least this time New York has a training camp to figure things out.