In a recent post on his Snapchat, new Boston Celtics big man Mitchell Robinson spoke about his confidence in himself and his belief that next season will be a "great" one for him.
“Right now, I’m just so confident in myself,” Robinson said. "... I am extremely confident right now, and I feel like this is going to be a great year for me. As you can see, I’m starting to take recovery a lot more seriously.”
And Celtics fans should feel the exact same way. It's fair to maybe be a little disappointed that Robinson was the team's big center addition of the offseason (he's obviously a good player and just helped the New York Knicks win a championship, but he's not the All-Star-level player fans were hoping the team would acquire to bolster the lineup), but he should be a great fit in Boston, and he should be in for a fantastic year.
Mitchell Robinson can address a lot of the Celtics' biggest needs
To be clear, I am still very much a Neemias Queta fan and believe the Celtics should continue starting him next season. He was just about as good as the team could have asked for last season in an expanded role for the first time in his career, and given that they signed him to a new deal this summer, it's clear that they care about his development. Starting him gives him the best opportunity to maximize his potential.
At the same time, it's obvious that Queta has his flaws, and they were well on display in the playoffs. He struggles against bigger and more physical centers defensively (Joel Embiid torched him in their first-round matchup), is an okay screen-setter, and is an inconsistent scorer (even for a big man -- he shot 65.3% from the field, but it seems like a toss-up that he will actually hit an open layup).
Bringing Robinson in will help tremendously in those areas (so much so that the thought of him and Queta in the same center room is incredibly enticing because of how well they can complement each other).
The Florida native is a career 70.2% shooter (he led the league in FG% at 74.2% in 2019-20, and his 72.3 FG% from last season was the third-best mark in his career) and is a beast in the paint. He is also incredibly physical and brings a ton of value defensively (he is a legit seven-footer who weighs 240 pounds) and is a brick wall as a screen-setter.
Robinson is also likely going to play the same backup big man role that he just had on a championship-winning team (he finished eighth in Sixth Man of the Year voting, by the way) in Boston, and he is going to drastically improve some of the team's biggest flaws.
If Robinson feels like he is in for a great year, then fans should have no reason to argue with him. He is in a great position to succeed, and if the Celtics plan on making a legitimate playoff run next season, they will need him to bring his A-game.
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