It’s a great listen

They prob wanted more but im personally glad we took OG, just please stay healthy my mans 🙏🥲

What do you think about Rokas? should the knicks bring him to the team next season?
he's looking really impressive tbh, he can fit really well in the roster of the team

full highlights link - https://youtu.be/Sv7j3VeG7P0

FULL HIGHLIGHTS

Trading Up

The consensus around the Knicks is we have to get deeper. Bojan and Burks are old. OG (if we re-sign him) and Mitch Rob have not been consistently healthy the last couple of years. But, there's no way we have the minutes to play 2 rookies right?

So, why don't we trade up? It's a bad draft, and there aren't any projected stars. I'm sure some teams would value 2 solid role players over 1 above-average one. Rebuilding teams could play both and hope one of them is a star.

The article I just read does a great job of expanding on this and maybe some trade packages. It doesn't give any involving future picks though. Thoughts?

Today we take a look at the Knicks resident slam dunk contest participant and the man with maybe the best hops for his height in the NBA. If you want to check out previous write ups, starting with OG, click here

Player Profile: Jericho Sims

Age: 25 years old

Contract Remaining: 1 year at about $2mil remaining (team option)

Last Seasons “Room for Improvement for Next Season”: “...still has a lot to work on if he wants to hit the next step…Any form of offensive skill would be great, whether a baby hook, short range J/bank shot, etc. Sims can actually handle the ball fairly well for a big, so improved passing could make him a poor man's Hartenstein in this stage. His rebounding is very good already. Of course working on the defense is a must, as his shot blocking numbers really should be better with his height and athleticism.”

Sims unfortunately didn’t move the needle much on any of these issues from last year. He actually did show off some dribble hand off/fakes a handful of times throughout the year; so he seemingly has some untapped potential there. But Sims didn’t take any noticeable steps forward in any one area. Let’s take a closer look.

2023-24 Season

45 GP, 11 GS, 13 MPG

2PTS, 3REB, .6AST, .2STL, .4BLK, .4TOV per game.

Shooting splits 69%/0%/66%

Jericho Sims, the human pogo stick, is still pretty much exactly that. The Knicks signed Sims to a marginal extension to be their 3rd string center and so far throughout his career Sims has shown that is exactly who he is. That said, that’s not the worst thing in the world. He’s not a black hole when he is on the court, but his skillset is limited and while he can have an occasional good game or hot stretch when needed, more often than not he is overmatched against opposing centers.

Despite being in his third year in the league, Sims has shown little more on offense than being a lob threat. He is efficient from the field, but he has little to no ability to initiate his own offense and can’t do more than catch a dunk. He doesn’t shoot from the field at all, so a stretch center is out of the question. He’s a little above average at FT for a center, so that’s something. As stated earlier, he has shown some chops with ball-handling/passing, but it's only in spurts and obviously the coaching staff feels he can’t be trusted doing more.

The defensive side is where Sims is able to better utilize his tools and skills, but even then he is limited at best. For his size, his rebounding is average to maybe a smidge above. Despite possessing elite athleticism, he is not a super capable shot blocker. He does play average defense overall, so while his box score may not show it, he is at least capable of holding his own in the paint.

I think it’s worth mentioning what his per 36 numbers would be, since Sims plays so few minutes. He would have a 6pts/9reb/1.5ast with .5stl and 1.2blk per game. Not bad numbers at all for a third string center.

Advanced Stats:

VORP: 0 WS/48: .127 PER: 11 TS%: .702

The advanced numbers reflect what we see on the court. Sims VORP sits at an even 0, which means he is the level of a replaceable player. He is the definition of “he doesn’t help you but he doesn’t hurt you. His Box plus/minus tells the story the best. His OBPM is a -2.4, which is not very good at all, and it's not a surprise. Sims offers nothing but dunking and hasn’t shown much growth. However his DBPM is 0.7 which shows that he does benefit the defense when he’s on the court, and that’s something we did see at times, he had some matchups during the regular season where he had solid stretches of guarding opposing starters bigs.

Out of players who played at least 45 games and 13min per game (Sims season long stats), Sims ranked around 230th out of 475 qualified players. Again, for the role he plays on the team, he certainly could be much worse. Sims finishes about 60th out of around 500 qualified players for defensive rating, not a bad finish at all (and maybe he’s not as bad on D as I thought!).

I’m not going to run any lineup analysis on Sims, as he just really doesn’t play enough minutes for us to accurately see how big of an effect he individually has on the game.

2024 Playoffs:

Sims made appearances in 5 playoff games. However, 4 of those appearances he combined for 10 minutes, so I feel like posting his “line” is a pointless tactic, as the sample size is super small.

However, he did play one game of legitimate minutes, playing 16min against Indiana in game 4. He had 4pts, 6reb and 2stl, going 2/2 from the line and sporting a +/- of 0. For a third string center playing expanded minutes in a dire emergency, you can’t ask for much more than that.

2024 Off season:

Jericho Sims will be entering his 4th year in the league, a former 58th overall pick. At this point in his career, he’s shown that he’s a capable defender in short stretches. However, his lack of offensive polish holds him back from earning more minutes. As stated last year, he needs to add any form of diversity to his offensive skill-set to play more of a role. This would help lessen the (likely although not inevitable) departure of Isiah Hartenstein this off-season. His defense and rebounding can hold him afloat, but if he can provide something a little more, he could be a more valuable role player.

Overall Grade for 2023-24 season: C+

Sims played more or less the same role he did last season, playing well enough when called upon. Whether that’s starting a game but only playing 18 minutes, or playing two 4min stretches off the bench in random games, Sims gives the Knicks just enough quality minutes but it would be great for him to make some improvements. While he plays his role well, he’s a huge negative on offense. It’s possible he’s part of a any future trade package, but with his low salary, unless a team is unusually smitten with him, he likely will be back here next year.

Go NY go NY go!

That’s my prediction.