In April of 2016, Mitchell Robinson dominated the first weekend of the EYBL with his combination of athletic ability and size. As a high jumping 7-footer, Robinson absolutely shut down the paint for opposing teams with his shot blocking and rebounding. He was ranked as the 33rd best prospect in his class at the time, but his play quickly captured the attention of head coaches around the country. Within days after that impressive set of games, Robinson decommitted from Texas A&M and re-opened his recruitment. However, instead of taking the chance to join one of the NCAA’s blue chip programs, Robinson decided to follow former Aggies assistant Rick Stansbury to his new job. Western Kentucky had hired Stansbury as their head coach and when he was able to get a commitment from Robinson, it was considered a huge recruiting coupe for a struggling mid-major program. Robinson continued to dominate the AAU circuit, ending the season as the leader in blocks among all EYBL players and seemingly finishing at will around the rim with an array of explosive dunks. His long legs allow Robinson to cover enormous distances upon gathering the ball, which made him a perfect target as a lob threat in pick-and-roll situations or as the finisher on drop offs at the dunker spot on either side of the baseline.

In the fall of 2016, I thought that Robinson was as good of a prospect as any of the top big men in his class. Even among the likes of DeAndre Ayton, Wendell Carter and Mohamed Bamba, Robinson’s height and defensive upside made him in many ways a more intriguing prospect than any of those tremendous talents. Ayton and Carter were much more skilled offensive players and Bamba was more mobile and longer. However, the most valuable centers are able to anchor a defense by controlling the paint and no one in the class did that better than Robinson.

Playing at Chalmette High in New Orleans, Robinson’s team didn’t play a national schedule against perennial powers like Oak Hill, Monteverde and La Lumiere during his senior year. Instead, he competed against local teams, some of them infinitely less talented. Unfortunately, that’s the only film available to me at this moment, so I went back and watched an NBA level 7-footer destroy regular high school kids.

As I mentioned, Robinson is best known for his defensive upside and that part of the game was on display throughout the games that I watched.

In the very start of the first clip, you may be able to tell that Robinson didn’t perform a high intensity box out in this play and throughout the film, it’s obvious that he didn’t always play with elite fundamental technique or anticipation. Nevertheless, he pretty much shut down the paint for opponent offenses. Usually by the end of the first quarter it became obvious to the other team that it was best not to challenge him anywhere around the rim.

The St Paul’s guard kicks it out after seeing Robinson coming over and after missing the initial shot and getting his own rebound, the opposing player (Owenby) is noticeably sped up on his putback attempt. Robinson’s sheer size and quick twitch athletic ability totally demoralized offensive players and that’s something that could potentially translate to higher levels of play.

Not only was Robinson’s shot blocking effective and intimidating around the basket, but his long legs allow him to cover huge distances from the paint to the 3-point line and block an unusually high amount of jump shots and run shooters off the 3-point line.

That second gif is especially impressive. Robinson is able to get out to the corner from the paint and not allow the initially open catch-and-shoot and then also covers the distance of the entire court in seemingly just a few huge steps in transition.

Robinson’s size allowed him to basically defend two players at once at the high school level something that obviously isn’t likely to work against two NBA players, but should still translate as an ability to control a large of chunk of the lane, especially as he continues to grow into his body and learn the finer points of defensive technique and awareness.

As you can see, Robinson’s upper body and hands are actually fairly fluid and flexible. Unfortunately, his long legs and high hips hold him back in certain areas. While Robinson is an unbelievable shot blocker who can quickly cover a lot of area moving upright in a straight line, there are certainly questions about his ability to legitimately contain dribble penetration and close out on shooters with discipline and proper technique.

Robinson often closes out with poor balance, one foot way in front of the other, or hops at the end, allowing the opponent to easily drive by him while he’s in the air. Some of this could be attributed to the context of high school basketball, where so few stars go all out when it comes to intensity and effort, but it’s still something to keep in mind and I’m a bit skeptical of Robinson’s ability to consistently get in a stance and contain ball handlers outside the paint at the NBA level. At the same time, even if he isn’t all that switchable, plenty of the top defenders throughout the NBA’s history were almost strictly interior defenders and it’s not hard to make an argument that Robinson has as much rim protection upside as any player in this class. Yes, even in this class loaded with defensive big man talent like Mo Bamba and Jaren Jackson Jr. Coming out of AAU, Robinson would’ve easily been my choice for best help side shot blocker and overall rim protector off all the bigs.

Above are the block numbers for some of the top big men that played in the EYBL over the past two years. As you can see, Robinson is far and away the leader and the numbers in general translate decently well to the college level. The one outlier is Marvin Bagley and this chart gives credence to the theory that his blocks are deflated by his role within Duke’s defensive scheme.

While Robinson dominated Louisiana high school basketball, at Western Kentucky Stansbury hired Robinson’s godfather Shammond Williams to the team’s staff. It was obvious that Stansbury and Williams had developed a close relationship, and that Williams was a huge influence on Robinson and the main reason behind his decision to spur the blue blood offers for a “lowly” Conference USA team. However, for reasons that aren’t yet clear, at some point the relationship between Williams and Stansbury badly soured. In early July of 2017, Williams resigned his position on the coaching staff and left the program. Speculation quickly followed that Robinson may also leave the team and indeed, it was soon announced that he would look to transfer. The problem was that because he had already enrolled at Western Kentucky for the summer semester, according to the NCAA rulebook he’d have to sit out the entire season to be eligible to play at another division one school. Kansas, LSU and a few other schools briefly pursued Robinson, but it was clear that he had no intention to stay in college for longer than a calendar year and that if he transferred, he’d likely never see the floor. After a couple of weeks of indecision, it was announced that Robinson would be returning to Western Kentucky after all, but once again, he didn’t last long before announcing that he was leaving the program for good. Indications were that Robinson would take the year off to train and prepare for the draft.

As someone who was really high on Robinson, I wasn’t sure if this was the best decision for his draft stock. The drama surrounding his Western Kentucky situation left a bad taste in the mouth of NBA executives, and with the 2018 class being so loaded with other talented bigs, ones with the opportunity to showcase their games throughout the college season, it would be tough for Robinson to sit out and still be picked as high as his talent suggests he should be. Unfortunately, playing internationally was probably not the answer either. Joining a lesser known league with poor talent would likely create more questions than answers. On the other hand, Robinson is probably not quite ready to compete at the level of some of the top European leagues like the ACB; places where coaches are loathe to give minutes to a young player who is certain to leave at the end of the season.

In my mind, the G-League seemed to be the best answer for Robinson. The competition tends to skew younger there and the style is much more in-line with Robinson’s strengths. He probably wouldn’t earn the type of salary an international club could offer, but he was more likely to have a successful season by gaining consistent playing time and catching the eye of NBA scouts. While Robinson is an excellent defensive player, he clearly still needs work offensively and working with G-League teams directly involved with the NBA could’ve helped him hone his skill development in the areas needed to produce at the next level. I came away seeing Robinson as an elite talent, but with so much still unknown about him, it’s hard to be sure about that proclamation. He’s certainly not without weaknesses. As I alluded to earlier, he rarely boxed out for rebounds in the games I watched. Typical of youth basketball, sure, but Robinson’s thin, long, lower body could make it easy for stronger, more well-centered opponents to get under him and displace him when fighting for position down low. Not to mention, Robinson isn’t much more than a dunker and general finisher of plays that others create for him on the offensive end overall. I’ve yet to see any flashes of vision or decision-making from him. and there maybe some long-term questions about his overall feel and basketball IQ.

Clearly Robinson isn’t much of a post player and lacks touch around the rim, even if his size allowed him to do just fine at the high school level. He has almost no real moves with his back to the basket either, and most of his points came from simply using his size, length and athletic ability to go right over the top of opponents.

However, even at the high school level, his lack of footwork, technique and general skill in the post would catch up to him in certain instances, like the play below.

That being said, we all know by now that big men don’t need a highly effective post game to be effective in today’s NBA. Robinson is a major lob threat and explosive finisher. His high school team didn’t run a ton of pick-and-roll for him, but in the NBA you can see how his size and leaping could translate to becoming an effective dive man.

Furthermore, Robinson was measured at 6-foot-11 in shoes with a 7-foot-2 wingspan and 9-foot-2 standing reach at the 2016 USA’s u18 team tryouts, but came up to 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-4 wingspan and 9-foot-3 standing reach in the u19 training camp a year later. The growth is something I noticed watching games from his junior and senior years at Chalmette back-to-back. I’m not suggesting that he’s likely to continue growing, but that difference in size could mean that Robinson would be even more effective now at 7-foot-1 than he is in some of these clips where he might have still been 6-foot-11. I mentioned his thin, long lower body, but while I’m far from a strength and conditioning expert, his frame looks fine to me overall. Provided he is a hard worker who spends plenty of time in the gym, Robinson should fill out just fine in the next few years. He probably won’t ever be known for his brawn, but when combined with his size, it’ll also be tough to see anyone bullying him. Finally, while Robinson isn’t an amazing passer or individual creator, he did have some flashes of perimeter ability late in his High School career, particularly as a jump shooter.

The mechanics are far from ideal, but he gets great arc and is able to set his feet decently quick as a pick-and-pop threat in the second clip. In fact, after doing some brief research for this article, his shooting and ball handling seem to be the things Robinson has recently been working on. It’s certainly up for debate whether that’s the part of his game that needs to be focused on, but it’s never a bad thing to be able to shoot in today’s game. Plus, I’m not actually inside Robinson’s training sessions, so you might want to take the couple of clips that I saw with a grain of salt.

On January 11th, 2018, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported that the G-League had been denying eligibility to some of the top prospects in the draft based on a set of little known rules that don’t allow players enrolled in a university to play in the league within the same academic year. Some basketball executives that Givony spoke to “went so far as to question whether the NBA is colluding with the NCAA.” It’s certainly a rule that makes very little sense and runs somewhat concurrent with the theory that the NBA and NCAA are very much in-line with each other’s motives and work to further their own interests, rather than those of the players and “student-athletes” that earn most of their capital. It became instantly obvious why Robinson was never able to join the G-League, despite it being an option that seemed to make plenty of sense.

In most of his interviews, Robinson seems like a shy, quiet kid. That’s not a bad thing on its own by any means, but when combined with the Western Kentucky soap opera and tweets like following it becomes a little disconcerting.

It's easy to say that when they're not throwing shit at you bro https://t.co/kWJ4Wkevdm — Mitchell Robinson (@23savage____) September 5, 2017

Can y'all leave me alone? — Mitchell Robinson (@23savage____) September 1, 2017

I’m a little worried about Robinson’s ability to handle the bright lights and lifestyle of the NBA game, especially if he ever becomes the type of star player that he has the upside to be. To be clear, there is no indication that Robinson is a bad person or that he lacks the work ethic to continue developing as a basketball player, so it really isn’t something that I’d say is a huge deal. The impossibly stupid and unfair G-League rules as they relate to Robinson make him almost a tragic figure. It’s totally understandable why he’s sitting out this year and his draft stock shouldn’t be penalized because of the impractical nature of those bylaws. However, the mysterious reasons behind his and Shammond Williams’ departure from Western Kentucky, along with even more mystery surrounding his game and lack of film and sample size against high-level competition, make him a particularly tough prospect to evaluate.

I can see Robinson sliding to the second round and then ending up the best big in this entire class like DeAndre Jordan. At the same time, I can also totally see him constantly bouncing between the G-League and NBA and never sticking too long for any one team as a limited shot blocking machine with poor all-around defensive instincts like a Keith Benson type. There are just so many more questions than answers about Robinson at this point, and sadly, that’s likely to remain so until he is drafted.