The Knicks drafted Mitchell Robinson with the 36th pick

With the 36th pick in the 2018 draft, the New York Knicks selected Mitchell Robinson.

Robinson is kind of a mystery man — he committed to Western Kentucky University for his freshman year, but dropped out of school just before the season to instead focus on training for the draft. It was an eyebrow-raiser at the time, and quite frankly kind of unprecedented, considering he didn’t even opt to play professionally overseas a la Brandon Jennings or Emmanuel Mudiay.

Here’s the good things: he was ranked 11th in the 2017 ESPN basketball recruiting rankings out of high school. He’s tall, and very athletic. And it appears that, at least in high school, the kid could really score in a lot of different ways:

Per DraftExpress, Robinson set a EYBL record for most rebounds per 40 minutes (20!) and most offensive rebounds per 40 (8) in that league last year. That would seem like a perfect complementary skill to pair with Kristaps Porzingis down low.

The obvious question mark is effort. Does this kid really care that much about basketball? Who would willingly choose to just not play organized basketball for a year when trying to make the NBA? To say that it was a concerning move is an understatement, but hopefully Scott Perry, Steve Mills and co. did their homework and feel comfortable with the kid’s work ethic.

So, in summation, Robinson is probably about the biggest upside pick the Knicks could’ve made at their spot. Summer League should hopefully show us a lot about who Robinson is and could become as a player.

What do you all think of the pick? Let us know in the comments!