Starting center Mitchell Robinson once again appears unhappy with his role with the Knicks.
In a couple of since-deleted Snapchat stories following Tuesday’s win in Portland, the 7-foot center indicated he’d like to be more involved in the Knicks’ offense.
One was captioned “disappearing for a while,” and the other included the text “tired asf of just being out there for cardio fam, like I want to play basketball to (sic) really just wasting my time and energy.”
Robinson notched a double-double in five of his first six appearances after returning from January thumb surgery, but he mostly had a quiet four-game road trip out West.
He averaged 5.3 points and 7.8 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per appearance, including just two field-goal attempts in 21 minutes in Tuesday’s victory over the Trail Blazers.
Backup center Isaiah Hartenstein played slightly more minutes on the trip — 23.8 per game — but he also has not been involved in the offense with just nine points in four appearances.
Mitchell Robionson boxes out before going for a rebound during the Knicks win over the Trail Blazers.NBAE via Getty ImagesHe did post 11 rebounds in each of the final two victories despite being held without a point by both the Lakers and the Blazers.
On a different social media account, Robinson also tweeted after Tuesday’s game, “Life’s a climb, but the views great” with a heart emoji and “Goodnight!”
The Knicks improved to 11-3 with Josh Hart in the lineup — and 41-30 overall — after he posted 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in 37 minutes off the bench in his return to Portland following a trade-deadline move to New York.
“Man, it’s great. I think this team was trending upward when I got here. And I was able to kind of just fit right in and continue to help this team grow. I think that’s the biggest thing,” said Hart, who hasn’t appeared in a postseason game in six NBA seasons.
“It feels great that we’re able to win, and I’m in a new position right now where I’m sitting here and we’re really playing for something.
“I haven’t really been in this position before in my career. So that’s just making myself even more hungry, and the rest of the guys in the locker room.”
RJ Barrett averaged 22.0 points on the four-game trip despite shooting 4-for-22 (.182) from 3-point range.
But he got to the rim consistently and shot 45.3 percent overall from the floor (34-for-75) as the Knicks split the four games.
He also registered a career-high three blocked shots Tuesday night.
