NBA Rumors: Knicks' Disabled Player Exception Request for Mitchell Robinson Denied

The NBA has reportedly denied the New York Knicks a $7.8 million disabled player exception for injured center Mitchell Robinson, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, due to "optimism that Robinson can return from ankle surgery to play late in regular season."

Robinson, 25, underwent surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left ankle in early December, with ESPN reporting at the time that his recovery would be reevaluated in 8-10 weeks.

Getting Robinson back for the playoffs would be huge for a Knicks team that probably isn't ready to compete with the Milwaukee or Boston-level contenders of the world, but nonetheless would be a tough out.

Robinson is a game-changer defensively, even if he was averaging a career-low 1.3 blocks per game in his 21 contests this season. But he was pulling down 10.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals per contest, and the Knicks had a solid 2.9 net rating with him on the floor, per NBA.com.

In his stead, Isaiah Hartenstein has moved into the starting center role (6.6 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1.1 BPG) and the Knicks have been excellent defensively, though the addition of OG Anunoby (92.2 defensive rating in five games in New York) has dramatically improved the team on that side of the court.

The Knicks are outscoring opponents by an incredible 31.7 points per 100 possessions while Anunoby is on the court, and the new starting lineup of Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, Julius Randle, Anunoby and Hartenstein has a net rating of 20.9 across its 84 minutes together, per NBA.com.

Now imagine the Knicks with Robinson back and another floor-spacing scorer acquired ahead of February's trade deadline, and you have yourself the sort of team that could give the Bucks and Celtics all they could handle come the Eastern Conference playoffs.

So any optimism when it comes to Robinson will be welcome news in the Big Apple.