Knicks Coach Comfortable with Roster After Quiet Deadline

After changes upon changes the New York Knicks are more or less the same.

New York mostly watched the 2025 NBA trade deadline as spectators, keeping their activity limited to sending off the redundant Jericho Sims to Milwaukee in exchange for Delon Wright. Ironically enough, their newest addition will be the oldest Knick, as Mitchell Robinson continues to inch toward a return to action after dealing with ankle woes throughout this season. Amidst his ongoing recovery, Robinson long lingered on the New York trade block before they decided to ship off Sims instead.

Tom Thibodeau is asked if the Knicks not adding a backup center is a sign of their faith in Mitchell Robinson: "You guys read the tea leaves" 🤣

Thibs adds: "We like our team a lot, were excited about Mitch - but we also feel that Ariel and Precious have done a good job" pic.twitter.com/ZJC0NRbtMO
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) February 7, 2025

Speaking on Friday in Tarrytown, Thibodeau hinted that the presence of Robinson —and more —helped the Knicks feel comfortable about where they stand as the push to the postseason begins in earnest now that the trade deadline is out of the way. Robinson will no doubt help shore up the interior production behind Karl-Anthony Towns but didn't want to let the ongoing efforts of spell options Precious Achiuwa and rookie Ariel Hukporti to go unnoticed.

"We like our team a lot and obviously we're excited about Mitch," Thibodeau said on Friday, per video from SNY. "But we also feel like Ariel's done a good job, Precious has done a good job and so that's really the way we approach. [Knicks president] Leon [Rose] and his staff, they were on it all year long."

"I think there's a tendency to think like, oh, this just happens a couple days before [the deadline]," Thibodeau continued. "They're always looking at it [like] 'okay, can we improve the club?' If there's something that makes sense, they explore it, and we go from there. But we like our team a lot."

It's easy to see why Thibodeau would wax poetic about the current crop of Knicks: even without the services of the tenured Robinson—set to play his seventh campaign in Manhattan —New York (34-17) has built a solid foundation for itself, currently sitting in third place on the Eastern Conference leaderboard entering the weekend. What Achiuwa and Hukporti have done while they wait for Robinson to make his season debut has kept New York's champion aspirations breathing.

Thibodeau offered some fleeting nuggets of optimism about Robinson's status on Friday as the Knicks prepared for a crucial Saturday showdown against the Boston Celtics (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), remarking that the center did "quite a bit of practice" despite not being cleared for 5-on-5 work yet (h/t SNY).

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