The Knicks’ blowout win over the Nets was soured by reports that Mitchell Robinson will likely miss the rest of the season due to ankle surgery, after an initial team announcement suggested that the starting center would need 8-10 weeks.
So, instead of a potential February return, the team’s best offensive rebounder and dominant defensive presence could be lost until next season.
Gio wonders if this is the first time that surgery ended with a worse recovery timeline than before.
“You know how you always get ‘surgery was successful.’ You always hear that, ‘surgery was successful. Surgery went great,’” Gio said. “So they went in, did the ankle surgery, he was supposed to be out 8-10 weeks, they do the surgery, now they say he’s out for the year. Unsuccessful surgery? For the first time ever, do we have an unsuccessful surgery?”
Regardless of what happened with Robinson, Boomer says the Knicks have to go out and get a big man via trade, and it has to be a higher-level acquisition than Taj Gibson. It needs to be someone who can keep Isaiah Hartenstein fresh and not logging heavy minutes for months before the playoffs.
“Hartenstein can’t do it by himself,” Boomer said. “The more you see of him, the more you like him. But he’s a guy that’s gotta have limited minutes, or he looks like an injury waiting to happen.”