The Jaylen Brown trade has been the talk of the town for the Boston Celtics for the past few days. It may be a while before it settles down completely, but what's a real shame is that it overshadowed the Celtics' savviest addition of the offseason: Mitchell Robinson.
Besides the fact that Robinson solves Boston's big man problems from the playoffs, it also directly hurts the New York Knicks pretty badly knowing the undeniable role he played in their title run. Making this addition more exciting is that the Celtics have actually had a pretty consistent history of making the most out of the ex-Knicks bigs that come their way.
Kristaps Porzingis
To think that once upon a time, Porzingis was the future of the Knicks, but before you knew it, he was the laser that made the Celtics pretty much unbeatable on their way to Banner 18.
Porzingis never quite became the franchise player the Knicks had in mind, but became the perfect big man to put next to the Jays. His floor-spacing, post-up presence, and rim protection gave Boston so much more flavor. Sure, his injury problems never went away, but Porzingis basically helped the Celtics turn into a nuclear bomb. There wasn't much the league could do but wait until it was over.
In all fairness, that summarized his first season in Boston. His second didn't go too great, as his ankle injury and battle with POTS prevented him from getting into the same groove he had in his first year with the Celtics.
It may have only been for two years, but Boston should have no regrets about getting Porzingis when they had the chance.
Luke Kornet
Kornet didn't have the same expectations as Porzingis. In fact, far from it. He was a second-round pick by the Knicks who spent two years with them a few years before he became a throw-in when the Celtics traded away Daniel Theis. More than that, his NBA career was hanging by a thread when the Celtics brought him back a year after they acquired him.
That's what made the story all the more amazing. Kornet went from a fringe NBA big man to emergency big man to key backup big for the team in his time as a Celtic. By the time it was over, he had secured his big payday with San Antonio.
What made Kornet's development so impressive was that he came to Boston known as more of a stretch-big, but Boston more or less convinced him to be more of a lob threat and rim protector he was, and they went from there.
Kornet working from the ground up made him the least likely fan favorite in Boston.
Enes Freedom
Yes, I'm serious... the first time.
After his uneventful year-and-a-half stint with the Knicks, Enes was the best option the Celtics had in free agency once Al Horford skipped town. Many were skeptical of what Freedom (then-Kanter) could do. No, he didn't replace Horford, but proved himself surprisingly useful because of his dominance in the post as a scorer and a rebounder.
Given his limitations, Boston made it work about as best they could. Too bad his second go-round go all that great, but still. His tenure as a Celtic was more memorable than many could have predicted, as he embraced his role as their backup big/second unit scoring punch.
Ex-Knicks bigs haven't always worked out as Celtics. Before Freedom, Boston had David Lee, who wasn't the biggest backfire, but was such a bust that they had him on the bench the last few months of his tenure before giving up on him completely.
But the point is, their recent history would suggest that this will work out tremendously with Robinson. Even if he wasn't a Knicks alum, he should fit in like a glove, but factoring the Celtics track record with ex-Knicks bigs, Celtics fans should be all the more excited of what's to come when Robinson debuts for Boston.
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