Mitchell Robinson’s early run with the Boston Celtics has been rough enough to draw easy criticism, but the bigger question is whether this was always going to take some patience.
Robinson arrived as a prized free-agent addition, and the appeal went beyond what he did for the New York Knicks. He also came in with the reputation of being a former Celtics killer, which only made the slow start stand out more. Instead of looking like the player Boston expected, he’s been underwhelming enough to turn every quiet night into a fresh round of second-guessing.
Still, Robinson may have been the one person who saw this coming. On Media Day, he said he would need 20 games before he would really start taking off with the Celtics. His explanation was simple: in New York, he had to learn the details of where he needed to be when teammates missed shots.
That’s the part that can get lost when people focus only on rebounding numbers. Robinson’s value isn’t just about physical presence on the glass - it’s also about positioning, timing and knowing where the ball is likely to come off. That may help explain why his elite offensive rebounding hasn’t shown up the way many expected.
For now, Boston can afford to wait. The Celtics are 5-2, so Robinson’s uneven play isn’t dragging the team into a hole. If the losses were piling up, this would look a lot more urgent.
Over the next few weeks, the spotlight will stay on whether Robinson’s timeline holds up. It needs to, especially with Neemias Queta clearly looking better as a starter.
That’s part of why Robinson got the opening-night job in the first place. It wasn’t that he was unqualified to start - he just spent most of his Knicks tenure thriving as a backup big. The Celtics may be trying to build that comfort level early, giving him time to get synced up with Jayson Tatum and Paul George while the rest of the roster settles in.
Boston has shown patience with new faces before, and that may be the same approach here. The process has been frustrating to watch, but the team at least got one encouraging sign last night: the double-big look with Robinson and Queta wasn’t a disaster.
It may not be the preferred setup, but it was enough to suggest there’s still a path forward if Robinson starts to find his footing. He still has plenty to prove, and 20 games may not sound like much, but it’s a clear benchmark for a player who badly needs to show he can fit.
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Derrick Whites Slump Is Still Bugging Celtics For One Big Reason
Derrick Whites long-range touch has been one of the quieter concerns around Boston early on, even as the Celtics have kept winning and the offense has stayed productive. His three-point percentage has trended down from 38.4% in recent seasons to 29.3% this year, a dip that stands out because so much of Bostons spacing and ball movement depends on guards and wings who can punish defenses from deep.
There is a reason the Celtics have not been knocked off course by it, though. Whites overall shooting from the field has improved, and Bostons offense remains strong enough to absorb a cold stretch from one of its most important perimeter pieces. The bigger question is what happens if White finds his previous form again, because even a modest rebound there would give an already dangerous attack another layer defenses have to account for. [Read more 🡒]
Paul George Concern Is Already Hanging Over Bostons Biggest Gamble
Bostons blockbuster swap of Jaylen Brown for Paul George brought instant star power, but it also brought the kind of long-view anxiety that tends to follow a veteran wing with mileage on the clock. George has been productive early, giving the Celtics the kind of two-way presence they were clearly chasing, yet the trade has already been framed around a bigger question than his opening weeks: how much can Boston ask of him before the season starts asking back?
That concern is especially pointed because the Celtics did not make this move for October alone. The real test is whether George can still look like himself when the games matter most in the spring, and some around the league are already wondering how carefully Boston will have to manage his workload to get there. For a team that pushed its chips in, the gamble is less about what George can do now than whether he can hold up long enough to make the deal look right when the playoffs arrive. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Have A Fourth Quarter Problem Fans Can't Ignore
The Celtics have done plenty right through eight games to sit at 6-2, but the closing minutes keep undercutting the bigger picture. A team that has built leads early and often has not been nearly as secure when the game tightens up late, with opponents repeatedly finding room to chip away in the fourth quarter and turn comfortable margins into uneasy finishes.
The common thread has been hard to miss for anyone tracking the rotations and the defensive possessions that follow. Bostons late-game issues have shown up most clearly on the perimeter, where opponents have been able to generate the kind of looks that fuel comeback runs, and the lineup combinations used in those stretches are starting to draw scrutiny for whether they are holding up well enough when the legs get heavy. [Read more 🡒]