The Boston Celtics may have landed the biggest fish in free agency, quite literally, when they signed the former New York Knicks center to a three-year $47.1 million contract earlier this month. Robinson was a dream target for many Celtics fans, as he fills the void in the team’s frontcourt depth with Nikola Vucevic’s departure.
He played a key role in New York’s NBA Championship run this spring. Robinson has given them strong rim protection and an unmatched offensive rebounding presence for years now. Not to mention what a nuisance he’d been seemingly every time the Knicks and Celtics would face off.
Robinson’s impact was so consistent that head coach Joe Mazzulla leaned into the “Hack-a-Mitch” strategy to exploit the big man’s poor free-throw shooting and force New York to take him off the floor.
“I mean, obviously, with Mitch's ability to protect the rim, his ability to rebound on both ends of the floor, his ability to change the game,” Mazzulla told reporters of what he’s most looking forward to with the addition of Robinson. “We all know part of our game plan was to try and get him off the floor as much as we could because of how effective that he was. He'll bring in something different.”
Robinson averaged 7.1 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per game in 14 total appearances against Boston since 2024. Taking him off the Knicks’ roster alone is enough to justify the signing.
Plus, it’ll be nice for the Celtics to add his offensive rebounding prowess (4.2 per game last season) into their already strong second-chance offense. Boston ranked fifth in the league in second-chance scoring last season with 16.9 per outing.
“Yeah, I mean Mitch has been a pain to go against for us for many years now,” Derrick White explained during the third quarter of Friday’s Celtics win at Summer League. “So it's great having him on our team and someone that is one of the best rebounders in the league, and obviously a great defender as well. So it's going to be great having him with us.”
If there's going to be a starting center battle in Boston, it won't bother Neemias Queta
Boston has now committed a fair chunk of change to the center position for the foreseeable future. Not only did they bring in Robinson, but they signed starting center Neemias Queta to a four-year, $56 million contract extension last week.
Some players who feel defensive about another strong player joining their position group -- not Queta. The Portuguese center is looking forward to the competition and how it’ll sharpen both he and Robinson heading into next season.
“A lot of boxing out at practice,” Queta told reporters in Las Vegas on Friday. “We're going to both crash a lot. We're going to teach each other a little bit of what we do best, and I'll just be positive. I've heard he's a really positive guy and a really fun guy to be around, and I can't wait to do that.”
The assumption is that Queta will remain the starting center for Boston next season, though it’d make sense to start Robinson so the Cs can maximize the minutes he plays while the team isn’t in the bonus, allowing opponents to intentionally foul the career 50.8% free-throw shooter.
It doesn’t matter either way to Queta, he explained that decision is in Mazzulla’s hands and that winning is his top priority.
“Yeah, I love good bigs to play with,” he added. “I love the competition that we may have, but at the end of the day, it's just basketball. Whoever plays, whoever doesn't play, we're really just -- I'm speaking for myself for sure, I haven't met him yet -- but I know for sure we're striving for greatness and getting the team the wins that we want. That's what matters at the end of the day, and we don't want to worry -- Well, I don't want to focus on anything else.”
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