It’s probably an understatement to say that the Mitchell Robinson era in Boston hasn’t exactly gotten off to the best start. But I’m not sure Joe Mazzulla is doing him any favors either. I get that he wants to get the new big man involved and make him feel at home, but starting him and leaning on him over Neemias Queta feels questionable at best.
Neemy has clearly been the better center early in the season, as Mitch has struggled with his rhythm, just looking off with his timing, out of sync with his teammates, and having a hard time controlling rebounds and passes.
But on Tuesday night against the Nets, with Queta fouled out, Joe made an incredibly questionable decision that almost cost the Celtics the game. Boston was up by four with under five seconds to play in regulation, with Julius Randle headed to the free throw line to shoot a pair.
It was evident for the world to see that Randle was going to attempt to make the first one and miss the second one on purpose. The Celtics simply had to secure the rebound, get fouled, and hit, at least, one free throw of their own, and the game would be effectively sewn up.
Robinson should not have been out there to shoot clutch free throws
Luka Garza had been having a stellar game off the bench, and Joe had him in for rebounding purposes. But he chose to also insert Robinson, putting him on the block opposite Garza, below the rim. That makes sense in that Robinson was probably the team’s best available rebounder, but the obvious flaw in that plan is that Mitch is one of the worst foul shooters in the NBA.
And sure enough, he secured the rebound, was immediately fouled, and promptly bricked both free throws, keeping the lead at three. The Nets grabbed the board, called a timeout, drew up a play, and Mike Brown Jr. buried a triple with 0.2 seconds remaining to stun the Celtics and improbably send the game to overtime.
The Celtics returned the favor in OT, as Tatum hit the buzzer-beater to win the game and let Mazzulla and Robinson off the hook, but that doesn’t erase the bizarre decision. I get that you need the rebound first and foremost, but you cannot risk sending Robinson to the line in that situation. Tatum is an elite defensive rebounder, and I’d happily trust him and Garza to clean up the glass in that spot and knock down the clutch free throws.
Mazzulla doubled down on Robinson decision
After the game, Mazzulla doubled down on his choice, offering support for Mitch:
“There's times where you have to empower guys, and you’ve got to put guys in position to say, ‘Listen, we need you to win. And to be a different team, we need you to be at your best.’ Mitch takes on that responsibility. I understand he's working on his free-throws. But at the end of the day, what a guy really wants is the empowerment and the belief to be like, you know what, you’ve got to make these. You’ve got to work at it. You’ve got to make them. You’ve got to know we need you to be at your best to make them. And there'll be another time where we'll go to that exact same situation, and he will.”
I appreciate the confidence and trust in Mitch and love the motivational tactics here, but at a certain point, this is just stubborn and foolish. Do the Celtics need Robinson to be their best? Yes. Do they need him going to the line for crunch-time free throws? Absolutely not.
Sure, he has worked on shooting them all offseason, and obviously Joe isn’t going to come out and rip him to the media and say that he won’t trust him again. But putting him in that spot is borderline malpractice, and Joe needs to know that if and when a similar situation actually pops up.
He’s a 51% career free throw shooter. He shot 41% from the line last season, and he’s 2-for-8 so far this season. At a certain point, the coach has to be a coach and tactically do what’s best for the team, rather than trying to prove some point or send a message. Luckily, this time it didn’t prove costly, but let’s adjust course going forward.
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