Mitchell Robinson was a perfect six-for-six from the floor on Sunday night, finishing with 12 points, seven rebounds, and four steals in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks. Two weeks ago, that stat line would have been hard for many Boston Celtics fans to picture.
Robinson looked out of shape and, at times, disinterested in his first handful of games as a Celtic. The Boston faithful, not known for their patience, wasted no time in calling his multi-year contract a miss.
However, just a week later, those fears are starting to fade as Robinson is finding his footing in Boston.
Mitchell Robinson’s Rough Start
Celtics fans were well within their right to criticize how Robinson played to begin the season. After all, he himself acknowledged his poor play.
What worried fans most was his motor, or apparent lack of one. Exhausted early in his shifts, Robinson struggled to run the floor, contest properly on defense, get up for lob passes, or control the boards as expected.
Robinson’s early struggles were clearly tied to adjusting to Boston’s system, which positioned him farther from the basket and involved him more in screening actions than he had with the New York Knicks. Still, his physical limitations stood out, and they affected his ability to play hard, which outraged fans.
The team suffered from his poor performance. In Robinson’s first six appearances, the Celtics had a -34.3 net rating swing with him on the court versus off the court (H/T @StoolGreenie). He was the only one of Boston’s three centers, along with Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, to post a negative net rating, and the Celtics were a dismal -18.3 net in his minutes.
With questions about his conditioning, effort, and impact, a vocal Celtics fan base was hard on him.
However, head coach Joe Mazzulla maintained faith in Robinson. With each passing game, Robinson looks more comfortable.
Turning the Corner
Robinson looks like a different player over the past week. With each passing game, he’s shown signs of improving in Boston’s system.
His activity on both ends is ramping up, and it’s showing in the box score. He’s recorded at least seven rebounds and one block in each of the last three games. In that stretch, the Celtics have a +28.8 net rating with him on the court, and he has a +9.1 on/off net rating swing, per DataBallr.
Robinson put together his best outing yet as a Celtic against the Bucks on Sunday night. Just as meaningful as the counting stats, which included season-highs in points (12) and steals (4), was his energy running up and down the court. He caught and finished two lob passes from Jayson Tatum and grabbed four offensive rebounds.
It’s a small sample size against subpar opponents, the Bucks twice and the Charlotte Hornets once, but his comfortability from a physical and mental standpoint appears to be improving. Robinson can feel that in his own play.
More in Shape and More Involved
“What’s helping a lot is getting in shape,” Robinson told reporters after Sunday’s win. “I think that’s a big part of it and also paying attention to detail… The last few games have been the best I’ve had so far, so I’m just going to build off those.”
Robinson mentioned that five-on-five wasn’t a prominent part of his summer training, so it’ll take time to work his way back into shape. While fans may prefer their players to enter the season ready rather than play themselves into shape, Robinson is, of course, a gigantic human and has dealt with injuries throughout his nine-year NBA career. The Celtics paid Robinson to make his biggest impact in the playoffs, not in the opening weeks of the season.
The upward trajectory is more complex than simply Robinson’s conditioning. The Celtics have also adjusted his usage to get him more involved and comfortable.
They’ve run multiple plays for him after timeouts in the past week. It shows Robinson they have faith in him and gets him involved and engaged.
They’ve also experimented with ways to give him more opportunities playing low, including using double-big lineups. Across the Celtics’ 7,554 regular-season possessions recorded on Cleaning the Glass last season, only 125 included at least two of Queta, Garza, and Nikola Vucevic. The Celtics are already almost halfway there in possessions between Queta, Garza, and Robinson (58) through just 10 games.
Robinson has also come off the bench in the past four games. The exact reason why he looks better as a reserve versus a starter is open to interpretation. Perhaps it’s simply what he’s most comfortable with, coming off the bench in 106 of his final 150 games with the Knicks. Maybe conditioning factors into that equation. Or perhaps there’s no correlation, and Robinson is just starting to understand what the Celtics want from him.
Patience, and a Test Ahead
Although Celtics fans were anxious about the early outcomes from Robinson’s addition, Mazzulla was not. He saw the slow start as part of the adjustment.
“I was never worried about his production, never worried about his play,” Mazzulla said on Sunday night. “I don’t think people realize a guy coming from a different team, playing a completely different style, having to do things differently: it just takes a little time.”
Robinson said as much before the season, at Media Day. He estimated it’d take around 20 games to build chemistry with his teammates, particularly on the offensive glass. Combined with a role that looks different from the one he played in New York, an adjustment period was inevitable. Ten games in, the player who showed up against the Bucks looks much closer to what Boston signed than he did in opening week.
Robinson still has plenty to prove before the Celtics can fully justify the addition. They paid him to make an impact against playoff-caliber opponents in the spring, not bottom-feeders in the fall.
For now, Robinson and the Celtics will track his progress game by game. Tuesday night’s matchup with Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers could offer a clearer read on how ready Robinson is for the biggest challenges ahead.
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