Mitchell Robinson, offensive engine?

Has the longest-tenured Knick’s offensive rebounding turned him into one of the most dangerous weapons on the team?

Within the last few years, and I don’t remember exactly where or in what context this was said, but The Strickland’s Tyrese (@londonstheory on Twitter) said because of his elite and historic offensive rebounding that Mitchell Robinson is an offensive engine. Then, we saw ShaxNBA provide more insight with data via his Substack that looked at players that benefited the most off misses corralled by the Knicks’ offense.

Offensive rebounding is one of the best ways to score in the NBA in today’s game, as it is basically half-court transition basketball. That’s why the Knicks have been so dominant with Robinson on the floor for them this season.

The Knicks have a 122.7 Offensive Rating (ORTG, points per 100 offensive possessions) and +8.5 Net Rating (NetRTG) in the 785 minutes this season when Mitch has been on the floor. In those minutes, they’re rebounding 37.9% of their offensive misses, which is almost 12 percentage points higher than the league average OREB% (26.1%). 

FYI: The Rockets lead the NBA with a 35.8% OREB%, per Basketball Reference.

Without Robinson on the floor this season, the Knicks’ offensive efficiency drops to 119.6 points per 100 possessions and a 25.6% offensive rebounding rate.

Robinson has 180 offensive rebounds in 785 minutes this season. That averages out to 4.5 offensive rebounds per game in 19.6 minutes per game. His 24.8% OREB% this season, according to Basketball Reference, leads NBA players with 750-plus minutes by a wide margin... the next closest guy is Philadelphia’s Andre Drummond at 18.5%.

Funnily enough, Robinson himself this season has more offensive rebounds per 100 possessions (11.3) than 12 NBA teams!

The Knicks have been elite in scoring in possessions where Robinson has registered an offensive rebound. That felt obvious to the common eye, but I wanted to personally look through the tape of his 40 games and track down the data myself. For record-keeping purposes, any point scored on a possession that was extended via a Mitch offensive rebound counts (shot after his rebound, free throws after his rebound, points scored after multiple offensive rebounds, etc.) for this exercise.

Per my own tracking, they have scored 204 points off 156 possessions with a Robinson offensive rebound this season, which comes out to 1.31 points per possession and a 130.8 ORTG. It’s obviously not an organized offensive play type, but it’s a “play” that the Knicks end up running in 10% of the total possessions with Robinson on the floor this season — or 3.9 possessions per game when he plays.

For comparison, Victor Wembanyama averages 1.32 points per possession (PPP) on transition possessions (18.6% of his possessions) per game.

According to Shax’s internal tracking numbers, the Knicks are scoring 1.28 PPP with Robinson at center — whether he’s the one securing an offensive rebound or if he’s boxing out board crashers to open up opportunities for others. The Knicks actually are much better at scoring off offensive rebounds with just Robinson on the floor at center and no KAT out there, scoring 1.45 PPP in those minutes.

Over Mitch’s last 10 games played since Jan. 21, the Knicks have 43 points off 29 possessions with an offensive rebound from him (1.48 PPP, 148.3 ORTG). 

Here are some examples of Robinson’s impact on the boards during that span…

Vs. Brooklyn (1/21/26):

The blowout win against Brooklyn on Jan. 21 served as the Knicks’ turning of the page of their 2-9 stretch. On this play, Karl-Anthony Towns misses a jab-step 2-point shot that’s rebounded by Robinson. He kicks the ball out to Josh Hart, who passes it to Deuce McBride, who whips it to Towns for a 3-point make. That doesn’t go down as an assist in the stat sheet for Robinson, but it’s an example of his offensive rebounding catching opponents out of position.

Vs. Philadelphia (1/24/26):

The Knicks pulled away with a hard-fought 112-109 victory in Philadelphia over the 76ers on Jan. 24 where the Knicks were +14 in Robinson’s minutes and -11 when he was sitting on the bench. His defense on Joel Embiid, especially in the third quarter, will get the love, but he wreaked havoc on the boards that game, as he extended six separate offensive possessions with his rebounding. On this rebound, he fights Paul George and VJ Edgecombe for the offensive board from a Hart miss, kicks it out to Jalen Brunson, who passes it to an open Landry Shamet for a 3-point cash.

Vs. Portland (1/30/26):

This offensive rebound by Mitch against the Blazers at the end of January is much simpler. The Blazers are ball-watching and he takes advantage, hauling in the offensive board and kicking it out to Brunson for a wide-open catch-and-shoot three. In ShaxNBA’s piece on his Substack that was mentioned at the beginning, he had a graph heading into the Feb. 8 game in Boston that showed that Brunson had the highest percentage of catch-and-shoot threes on the team from broken plays and knocked down those shots at an unbelievable rate. 

Vs. Lakers (2/1/26):

This last play from Robinson perfectly encapsulates his offensive rebounding essence. Hart takes an end-of-the-shot-clock three that clanks off the rim and shockingly (not shocking at all) ends up in Robinson’s hands. Robinson takes one dribble away from the hoop and Shamet perfectly relocates into the corner for a wide-open three, which he makes… and Robinson is walking away before the shot even makes it to the basket. Why? Steph Curry might have his pimped threes, but Robinson has his pimped offensive rebounds that turn to passes to open 3-point shooters.

Mitch’s ability to destroy an opponent on the boards allows the Knicks’ offense more wiggle room if the offense sputters. As amazing as the 60% TS% games from the offense are, the games where Robinson is lengthening multiple possessions with back-breaking offensive rebounds are just as good. That’s why the Knicks’ offense can actually be better with him on the floor, despite the shooting efficiency decreasing.

This skillset looms even larger in the playoffs. We saw that against the Celtics last summer when Joe Mazulla was intentionally fouling him to get him out of games. The Knicks were +46 with him on the floor (+23 NetRtg, 37.5% OREB%) against Boston and -43 with him off the floor (-14.1 NetRtg, 23.9% OREB%) in that series.

However, opposing teams have to remember: You can’t prevent the inevitable.