Mitchell Robinson, Josh Hart could miss Knicks season-opener
The Knicks may be without two key players for Wednesday’s regular-season opener against the Cavaliers.Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart didn’t practice on Monday, and new coach Mike Brown wasn’t sure of their status for his first game as the Knicks’ coach.Hart missed the final four preseason games due to back spasms while Robinson didn’t play in the last two contests due to what the Knicks have termed load management.Robinson also hasn’t practiced over the last week.“Everything we’re doing with him is about managing his workload, which we’ll do the whole year,” Brown said, when asked if there is an injury to the 7-foot-1 center.Brown said he wasn’t sure if Robinson would be available on Wednesday.
On Friday before the preseason finale, the coach said if it was a regular season or playoff game Robinson would have played that night.Injuries have been a constant for the 27-year-old Robinson, who has averaged 48.1 regular-season games in his seven-year career.Considering the rim-protecting, offensive-rebounding dynamo’s impact when healthy, it makes sense that the Knicks are doing everything possible to keep him on the court.It still seems strange that the week leading into the regular season a player would be rested.“I’ve been in different situations where you sit a guy, you manage his workload and he does certain things, whether it’s sometimes shooting free throws, sometimes it’s watching, sometimes it’s walking through this, walking through that,” Brown said.
“I’ve been with a lot of guys that have done that throughout the course of my career, starting back in the early 2000s with the Spurs.We had a couple of older guys on the team, so to me it’s not odd, but I’m not saying it’s a bad question.”As for Hart, Brown believes he is progressing.
He is at least doing on-court work off to the side.The good news is that starters Karl-Anthony Towns (quad) and OG Anunoby (ankle), who both missed Friday’s game against the Horn...