Knicks Won’t Bring Back 2 Key Players From Title Team. Mitchell Robinson and Landry Shamet Are Gone
The New York Knicks are about to find out how hard it is to repeat. Two of the championship team’s most important rotation pieces, center Mitchell Robinson and guard Landry Shamet, are not expected to return to New York, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The reason is simple. The Knicks do not want to cross the second apron of the luxury tax. James Dolan has been clear with the front office that the second apron is a hard line, even after the title.
That is a brutal position for a team that just won it all. Robinson was the Knicks’ most reliable rim protector and a foundational piece of their playoff defense. Shamet shot 47.5 percent from three in the postseason and provided spacing whenever Tom Thibodeau needed it.
Replacing those two on the cheap is going to be hard. The Knicks can offer veteran minimums and exceptions, but the open market sets the price. Robinson is going to get paid by some team that needs a center, full stop. Shamet will land a multi year deal somewhere.
The Mitchell Robinson decision is the more painful one. Robinson is a top defensive center when healthy. He has had injury issues, sure, but the version of him that ended the Knicks’ title run was as good as any big in basketball. Letting him walk for nothing is the cost of doing business under the new collective bargaining agreement.
Dolan is not wrong to fear the second apron. Teams that cross it lose the ability to use their mid-level exception, lose the ability to aggregate contracts in trades, and start picking very late in the first round. The penalties are designed to break up exactly the kind of expensive rosters the Knicks are running.
That said, championships are rare. The Knicks just got their first one since 1973. There is a real argument that you spend whatever it takes to keep that core together for one more run, then deal with the consequences later.
The Knicks have internal options. Ariel Hukporti and Pacome Dadiet could see expanded roles at center. Tyler Kolek and Miles McBride can absorb Shamet’s minutes. The depth chart is not bare, it is just less proven.
Eastern Conference contenders should be encouraged. The Heat just landed Giannis. The Pistons could land Jaylen Brown. The Knicks just got worse, on purpose. The road back to the Finals is going to be a lot more crowded next spring.
Repeating in the new CBA era is brutally hard. The Knicks are about to learn that the same way Denver, Boston, and Milwaukee did.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
