NBA free agency: Knicks probably can't afford Mitchell Robinson, but big man has great value
Knicks' Mitchell Robinson during Game 3 of the second round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs against the 76ers on May 8, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pa. Credit: Getty Images/Emilee Chinn
The attention Tuesday was focused on the stars switching locations, whether it was LeBron James' decision to leave the Los Angeles Lakers and take his aging talents somewhere else, or Kawhi Leonard returning to the Toronto Raptors where he won a title.
But for the Knicks, the work was on the fringes, the lesser-known names, trying to finalize the pieces of their roster as they attempt to chase another NBA title after capturing their first championship in 53 years.
While the Raptors improved their roster with the move to acquire Leonard and the rest of the league is trying to figure out how to get past the Knicks, the competition was the collective bargaining agreement and the Knicks payroll that was inching toward the second apron of the salary cap. The NBA issued the official numbers for the 2026-27 season — the second apron set at $221,686,000, providing very little for the Knicks to work with as the market opened Tuesday night.
The free agent market’s opening bell didn’t come with the usual flurry of activity — many of the potential free agents signing on with their teams before they could be chased by other teams. The Knicks did get most of their work done before the market opened, bringing back their own free agents, Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Mo Diawara, securing 11 spots on the roster and keeping nearly the entire rotation from the championship-winning squad in place.
But the math was difficult — nearly impossible — to imagine bringing Robinson back, too. The Knicks had just $14 million available below the second apron before they signed Shamet to a four-year, $24 million deal Monday. That was basically the last step in pushing Robinson onto the open market.
After that signing the Knicks had just $8.5 million available, not just to try to bring back Robinson, but also to fill out the fringes of their roster. Robinson might not be the premier free agent on the market, but among the centers he was the highest-regarded of the unrestricted free agents — only Nikola Vucevic and Zach Collins were the other centers who didn’t have ties to their current teams who were coming off bigger contracts than Robinson and Vucevic had struggled in Boston after being dealt to the Celtics. Orlando’s Mo Wagner also figured to draw attention from teams in need of a center.
The lone obstacle for a quick deal for Robinson is that Detroit’s Jalen Duren and Utah’s Walker Kessler were open for business as restricted free agents and being courted by some of the teams in search of a big man.
In an ideal world the Knicks would have liked to bring back Robinson, who served a useful role as a backup to Karl-Anthony Towns capable of starting, filling in the blanks on the skills that Towns lacks — a better rim protector and perhaps the game’s best offensive rebounder. But his flaws — shooting just 40.8% from the free-throw line this season and then seeing that number dip to 29.8% in the playoffs, nearly making him unplayable at times with teams focused on hacking him to take the Knicks out of their offense.
Still, Robinson possesses value around the league and could start for some teams — maybe even crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Nets, who dealt away their center, Nic Claxton, last week to obtain former Knick Julius Randle. The Knicks have little room to compete for his services if, as Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan said, the team will not go into the second apron this summer.
“If we could bring back the whole team exactly as it is, why wouldn’t you?” Dolan said on WFAN just days after the title was secured. "But I don’t know if we’re going to be able to. We’re willing to stretch, but there’s certain things in the NBA that you’d have to be suicidal to do and we’re not going to do those, One of them is the second apron. Cannot go into the second apron. But that’s up to Leon (Rose). I’m just telling him how big of a check I can write. I’ll write as big of a check as possible, but I can’t write a check that goes into the second apron.”
For the Knicks that means to finish off the roster they have three spots to fill (at least, with teams able to go with 14 players for 14 consecutive days and 28 total days in a season). With the starting five back in place, Shamet, Alvarado and Diawara in place, and reserves Deuce McBride, Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet under contract, the Knicks were left to either move some of those pieces to create more cap space or find veteran minimum pieces.
Among the possibilities for the Knicks if they could not find a way back with Robinson would be returning their own third-string center, Ariel Hukporti, New Orleans center Kevon Looney, who won titles with Golden State, or Chicago’s Nick Richards.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
