Just seven games into the season, we have our first big question: what’s up with Mitch Robinson? Across the board, his numbers are down and after being Boston’s big free agent signing over the summer, some fans are having a bit of buyer’s remorse. From Monday’s Takeaways:
Head coach Joe Mazzulla said after the loss that Robinson’s decreased impact is partly because they have him playmaking by setting screens further away from the rim, but after leading the league last season with 7.7 offensive rebounds
per 36 minutes, it’s been a disappointing start for the Celtics’ key free agent signing of the summer.
Before tipoff last night, Mazzulla echoed those sentiments again. Robinson is being asked to do a little more — picks above the break and a little more ball handling and passing — and that’s taken a little more time than expected.
“A little bit of it is it’s a process vs. a result thing. You have to leverage and appreciate that he’s very hard on himself. The standard is really high for him and you and you enjoy that,” Mazzulla said.
“At the same time, nothing is ever as good as it seems and as bad as it seems. The other night, he had the highest crash rates on our team that we’ve had. He just wasn’t able to come up with a few of those. At the same time, he’s playing a different role. He’s playing a role that positively impacts the other players around him. He’s playing a role that gives him the ability to do a little bit more.”
“Crash rate.” Add that to your Mazzullaball-to-English dictionary and if you’re curious of its definition, check out Robinson’s shift in the first quarter against the Bucks. He grabbed six rebounds in five minutes, including three off the offensive glass.
Mazzulla again started Neemias Queta and brought Robinson off the bench with an unexpected battery mate: Luka Garza. The double big duo immediately had a positive effect on the floor — think Robinson paired with the perimeter shooting Karl-Anthony Towns in New York.
With Robinson as the low man and Garza working around the free throw line, they activated their WonderTwins powers that make them uniquely different in the Celtics center room; by the end of the first half, Robinson was a plus-13 with nine rebounds (five off the offensive glass) and Garza hit all three of his threes for a team-high 11 points. Before tonight, the two had played just two minutes together, but Mazzulla might have found something in the pairing.
“Mitch’s process towards rebounding has been consistent with us throughout the season. Honestly, he played great tonight,” Mazzulla said. “It wasn’t so much tactically some of the things that we did. It was just we saw the best version of him. Like I said before, he’s not getting the same results as before from a rebounding standpoint, but the process of what he’s doing has always relatively been there.”
Alas, Mazzulla is still in experiment mode with Boston just wrapping up its eighth game at 6-2. He has said in the past that the identity of the team reveals itself somewhere between Game 10 and 20 and it’s conceivable that Robinson could regain his starting spot when the Celtics hit the road this month. To his credit, the starting lineup with Mitchell Robinson has been good, sporting a 16.5 net rating (116 offensive, 100 defensive). That’s on par with the 76ers opening fivesome of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James, and Joel Embiid.
Mazzulla again reiterated that because of his role change, it takes a little bit of time, particularly for someone that carved out a niche over nine years with a championship team.
“It was just a different situation for him in New York,” Paul George said. “Here, we actually need him to do a little bit more and want him to do a little bit more and kinda explore that. He’s just going through that — a different playstyle for him. He’ll get there.”
After calling him one of the smartest players he’s ever coach, Mazzulla is confident in the big man too, saying, “He’s one of the best rebounders of all-time, so any chance there’s a little bit of a dip, we don’t have to hit the panic button. His process has been great and he’ll continue to get better and better for us.”
