Throughout his entire NBA career, New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson has battled one persistent issue: free-throw shooting. It’s been the one part of his game that never really came around, no matter how much everything else evolved.
Earlier this season, he tried to fix that.
Robinson tweaked his routine at the line, cutting his pre-shot bounces from three to one and shifting his feet to address his habit of missing left. The idea was simple: find a rhythm that felt repeatable and finally stop being a liability at the stripe.
So far, the results haven’t been what he hoped for.
The early returns are rough, and the adjustment hasn’t produced any noticeable improvement. For all the work he’s put in, the free throws still aren’t falling.
Despite that, Knicks head coach Mike Brown remains confident in Robinson’s ability to knock down his free throws consistently.
“Obviously, he’s [Robinson] got to make free throws. We have a rotation and most times in the rotation at the end of games, Josh [Hart] is going to be out there [at power forward],” Brown said per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. “So Robinson won’t be out there a ton, but if we need a rebound, he’s going to be out there.”
This season, the Florida native is shooting an ugly 22.2% from the free-throw line. Yes, it’s a tiny sample size, just nine attempts, but it’s still jarring.
Mainly because last season, in another small sample (17 games), Robinson actually looked like he had turned a corner. He knocked down 13 of his 19 attempts, a career-best 68.4% that gave the Knicks real hope he was finally figuring it out.
Robinson remains a force on the glass and an elite second-chance creator whenever he’s on the floor. But at some point, he has to convert the easy ones. Free points matter, and the Knicks can’t afford to leave them on the table.
