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San Antonio Spurs: Can Thomas Robinson revive his career in NBA Summer League?

By Marlow Ferguson Jr.

Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images
Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images /
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(Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Robinson’s post-NBA resumé confirms improvements to his game

Robinson’s first run in the NBA is about as enigmatic as it gets for a lottery selection. In a five-year span, the former Jayhawk went from going toe-to-toe with Anthony Davis — and arguably outplaying him — during the 2012 NCAA National Championship game, to searching for an NBA team, to watching AD on TV.

All of this makes Robinson’s run in Portland all the more intriguing, as it has been the only professional team that Robinson has found success with (specifically in 2013-14, when Robinson was the “energy guy” for a 54-win Blazers squad that advanced to the second round of the playoffs in the Western Conference). The many pit stops to Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles were inspiring, but they all led to an inevitable result: a humbling trip to the EuroLeague.

Since last playing for those Lakers in 2017, he’s played overseas for BC Khimki, a Russian EuroLeague team, as well as the Beijing BeiKong Fly Dragons.

Even though Robinson was a marquee player for the Fly Dragons — he averaged a Duncan-esque 21.9 points and 13.6 rebounds per game on 51.4 percent shooting — the case for it being “empty stats” production will always be readily available since BeiKong was only 5-21 in its 26 games with Robinson available.

With the Fly Dragons, Robinson was given the freedom to take risks that he was often benched for in the NBA. One evident example would be a play like this:

Isolation analytics have only been tracked since the 2015-16 season. With Robinson’s physical specs, it’s reasonable to understand why he believed he could attack slower bigs off the dribble and get to the lane. In his highlight tapes, he makes a habit of this.

Despite a limited sample size, he ranked ninth in the NBA in isolation efficiency, hitting on 57.1 percent of his attempts. These sorts of possessions only represented about one-10th of his offensive decisions, though his frequency and percentile were on the same stratosphere as All-Stars like Karl-Anthony Towns, DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis.

Robinson’s feature story covered by Jabari Young of The Athletic helps to paint a picture of Robinson’s discontent with being relegated to his rebounds and put-backs. To quote that piece:

The central idea of that piece centered around both Robinson’s willingness to “learn his lesson,” but also his ambition to get back into the place he belongs.

During NBA Summer League, Robinson has been on his best behavior, sticking to coaches’ orders and hanging around the paint. Aside from the injury, it’s worked in a sense that he’s contributing to a competitive team. Not only that, it’s also been quite a joy to watch:

https://twitter.com/nbagleague/status/1147359501886136326?s=19