The 36th overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft has been showing out down the stretch of the season. Mitchell Robinson, the New York Knicks' second-round pick from last year’s draft, is catching the eye of everyone around the league with some dominating defensive numbers. Despite only playing 18.6 minutes per game, Robinson can be found near the top of just about all the leaderboards of block totals.
Zach Lowe of ESPN spoke about Robinson’s freakish numbers while breaking down his ability to block shots on the perimeter:
He leads the league with 13 rejected 3-pointers, one more than Ben Simmons and Jrue Holiday, per Second Spectrum. Holiday and Simmons have both logged more than 2,000 minutes. Robinson hasn't cracked 900. You are not supposed to obliterate 3-pointers with this frequency.
It has been quite the season for the rookie. Through 46 games, he is averaging 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds (with about half of those being offensive rebounds), 2.3 blocks, and 0.8 steals. His per-36 numbers are out of this world, though. Per 36 minutes on the court, he is averaging 12.7 points, 9.9 rebounds, 4.4 blocks, and 1.5 steals.
Robinson’s defensive force is no joke. He is third in the league in blocks per game, only behind Myles Turner and Anthony Davis, both of whom play 28 or more minutes per game compared to Robinson’s 18.6. The rookie is also the only player who plays less than 20 minutes per game blocking at least 1.5 shots per game.
Robinson leads the league in blocks per 36 minutes, with his 4.4 throttling Turner’s 3.5. Robinson has 105 total blocks on the season, which ties him with Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid. Both of those players have played almost 1000 more minutes than Robinson.
There is no doubt that Mitchell Robinson has the chance to be special.
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