The New York Knicks’ loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night exposed several clear weaknesses in their offensive system. One issue is their heavy reliance on Jalen Brunson; the more prominent one is that Mitchell Robinson often becomes a liability on offense.
Sure, he is averaging 4.5 offensive rebounds per game, but the issue is his free-throw percentage.
Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics used a new tactic, one that would pay off in their 123-117 victory. When Robinson was on the floor, he was being hacked almost immediately. It didn’t matter if he was on or off the ball, or even completely out of the play; Celtics’ players would find him and intentionally foul.
The reason for this is obvious: Robinson is shooting a historic 17.6% from the free-throw line, on pace for by far the worst single-season percentage ever recorded.
The current worst is held by Ben Wallace in the 2000-2001 season, where he shot 110-of-327 on free throws, good for 33.6%.
Mazzulla went to this strategy early, using guys like Baylor Scheierman and Anfernee Simons to take turns sending Robinson to the free-throw line. It paid off because Robinson shot 1-for-4 from the line before Knicks Head Coach Mike Brown realized he couldn’t stay on the court, as he quickly turned to Guerschon Yabusele.
Robinson has always been a bad free-throw shooter, but it has never come to this level. His season worst before this year was 41%, but now there is a clear drop off in his agility to knock them down from the charity stripe.
If he continues this pace, he will make history in one of the worst ways and would likely hold that record for a long time.
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