{"id":122806,"date":"2026-06-12T15:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/the-lakers-are-setting-themselves-up-for-failure-courtesy-of-the-knicks\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:00:03","slug":"the-lakers-are-setting-themselves-up-for-failure-courtesy-of-the-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/the-lakers-are-setting-themselves-up-for-failure-courtesy-of-the-knicks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lakers are setting themselves up for failure courtesy of the Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The New York Knicks are currently battling the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA playoffs, but one key player is already on the Los Angeles Lakers’ radar. Mitchell Robinson is a crucial piece of the Knicks’ NBA Finals run.\n<\/p>\n

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And, according to NBA insider Mark Stein, the Lakers could potentially poach him this summer.<\/a> Robinson is a terrific center, with him being a strong defensive player and elite offensive rebounder.\n<\/p>\n

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Even so, the Lakers wouldn’t be wise to sign him. For one, he’s making $15 million now and will likely be seeking a pay raise this offseason. That could mean that Robinson wants a contract starting around $20 million annually.\n<\/p>\n

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The Knicks could afford to bring him back using bird rights, making that a realistic starting point. Nevertheless, the Lakers shouldn’t offer him anywhere near that amount.\n<\/p>\n

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The Lakers should steer clear of the Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson
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The problem with the Lakers signing Robinson is that they would likely be doing so with the intention of starting him. He simply can’t be a full-time starter.\n<\/p>\n

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If they bought him in with the intention of playing him closer to 20 minutes, then that would be perfectly reasonable. However, Robinson may not be willing to move cross-country to play a bench role on a worse team.\n<\/p>\n

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It’s also important to note that the Lakers may only have around $50 million in cap space. Using around $20 million on a player that should be coming off the bench doesn’t make much sense.\n<\/p>\n

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The Lakers have better free agent options than Mitchell Robinson
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Instead, they’d be wise to go after a starting center such as Jalen Duren or Walker Kessler in restricted free agency. At least that way, they would be getting a starting center with a better health track record than Robinson.\n<\/p>\n

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Pursuing Duren might force the Lakers to tie up more than half of their cap space for a couple of days. That would be a result of him being a restricted free agent, giving the Detroit Pistons 48 hours to match an offer.\n<\/p>\n

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However, if the Lakers offer around $40 million annually, that might force the Pistons to let him walk. The other option would be Kessler, who is also a restricted free agent.\n<\/p>\n

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He might cost around what the Lakers may end up having to pay Robinson annually. The big difference is that he is just 23 years old and has a better health track record.\n<\/p>\n

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At the very least, they can stick it to the Utah Jazz by throwing a big offer at him and forcing them to match. Or they could look at potential trade options such as Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford or even bring back Anthony Davis.\n<\/p>\n

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Frankly, any of those options would make more sense for the Lakers than Robinson, who seems to be in the perfect situation in New York.<\/p>\n

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The New York Knicks are currently battling the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA playoffs, but one key player is already on the Los Angeles Lakers’ radar. Mitchell Robinson is a crucial piece of the Knicks’ NBA Finals run. And, according to NBA insider Mark Stein, the Lakers could potentially poach him this summer. Robinson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}