News briefs on Mitchell Robinson, Josh Hart, and Giannis?

On Thursday afternoon, the NBA announced that Celtics guard Marcus Smart had won the 2022-23 NBA Hustle Award, making it the third time in five seasons that he has won the award. That may not be of any important to any Knicks fans but they can rejoice a bit knowing that their very own Mitchell Robinson was a top five finisher and the only center to be named on the list. Robinson, largely due to his mediocre statistics, has long gone underappreciated and underrated but has recently gotten more recognition around the league for his incredible rim protection and offensive rebounding efforts after completely dominating the Cleveland Cavaliers last round.

Another player who has recently gotten a lot of love is Josh Hart. And there seems to be a pretty strong belief around the league that Josh Hart’s return to the Knicks next season is pretty much a done deal. Hart has been a hot topic around the league as his free agency nears but Marc Stein reportedly hasn’t talked to a single rival team that believes the Knicks forward is “gettable”. While a lot can still happen between now and the offseason, it’s nice to know that Hart, who instantly became a fan favorite when they acquired him at the trade deadline, seems to be here for the foreseeable future.

And speaking of the off-season, Brian Windhorst went on First Take today and reported that the Knicks are monitoring Bucks superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo and his situation in Milwaukee after the first-seeded Bucks lost their first round matchup in devastating and embarrassing fashion to Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. While the prospect of bringing one of the greatest players in the world to New York would be exciting to say the least, bringing the Greek Freak to New York would take a tremendous amount of assets, even if the Bucks were to trade him, which seems incredibly unlikely to begin with. Leon Rose and co. are likely just doing their due diligence but it may be fun monitoring New York monitor Giannis.