The New York Knicks will be without their center, Mitchell Robinson, at the start of the 2024-25 NBA season. SNY’s Ian Begley reports that Robinson is expected to be out in January as he recovers from an offseason ankle surgery.

Robinson initially hurt his ankle in December 2023 and underwent surgery to address the issue. He ended up returning in March, only to aggravate the injury during the playoffs.

Following another surgery in May, Robinson was expected to return to action in six to eight weeks. However, the recovery process apparently didn’t go as planned, and he will miss a lot more time.

As Begley points out, the Knicks don’t want to rush Robinson out on the floor and risk that he re-injures himself again. Additionally, the team is happy with its frontcourt depth, especially after recently signing Marcus Morris to an Exhibit 9 contract.

Mitchell Robinson was limited to 31 games last season, during which he put up 5.6 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. Since making his NBA debut in 2018-19, Robinson has averaged 8.0 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game.

While he isn’t a big scoring presence, Robinson is a key contributor to the Knicks due to his defense. This is one of the reasons why the franchise signed him to a four-year, $60 million contract back in 2022.