Backup Knicks center Mitchell Robinson was a full participant in practice on Tuesday and is expected to play a normal minutes load when the playoffs start on April 20.
Robinson, who missed more than three months following a Dec. 8 surgery-inducing stress fracture in his left ankle, sat the entire second half and overtime of the Knicks’ season finale against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday.
The seven-foot big man said he’s uncertain exactly when in the first half he hurt his ankle but noted it was the landing, not the push off, causing some discomfort.
“I’ve seen a few different possibilities that it could’ve been. Just landing on each one was different,” Robinson said after Knicks practice at the Tarrytown training facility on Tuesday. “So I don’t really know exactly which one it was. But it’s alright, though. Came in, got some treatment done.
“It was just my landing. It was, like, jammed up pretty much. It wasn’t turned or nothing. It was just the way I landed.”
Robinson said he’s still building confidence in the ankle. He appeared in all but one game since returning to the rotation on March 27 against the Toronto Raptors.
“Yeah, [the confidence is] still getting there,” he said. “Missing 50 games or whatever it was, now at this point, I kinda just have to just roll with it, just go out there and just fight, you know? It’s game time. We’ve gotta go.”
Robinson said the ankle surgery impacts his lateral movement the most. He is still able to run and jump, but shifting side-to-side — as is required of big men who switch defensively — remains a work in progress.
“[Moving] laterally, that’s pretty much really what it is,” he said. “I got a whole week to prepare, so I should get better and better each day, and just go.”
The sixth-year big man plans to spend the week getting his ankle in the best possible position for the team’s first-round playoff matchup, which will be against either the league’s reigning MVP in Joel Embiid or a three-time All-Star in Bam Adebayo.
“Just do more hops and more agility stuff,” he said. “Throughout the whole week — I can do it the whole week, so it’s like, we got plenty of time.”
The Knicks have options at the five: Isaiah Hartenstein rose to the occasion starting in Robinson’s place and has remained the starter upon his return. The Knicks also acquired Precious Achiuwa as part of the OG Anunoby trade and can turn to Jericho Sims in desperate times, as well.
Robinson, however, only has 10 games under his belt since the December operation, and his ankle flared-up with a shot at the No. 2 seed on the line.
His ankle continues to be a situation the Knicks are monitoring. If it holds up, the Knicks could have the best one-two punch at the center spot in all of basketball, but if it doesn’t, New York could have real trouble defending either one of the all-world centers they could draw in the first round.
“We don’t ever lose [at] that spot really,” Robinson said of himself and Hartenstein playing the five. “Just one go out, the other go in. So yeah.”
