Does Henry Sims Have an NBA Future?

When the Philadelphia 76ers traded Spencer Hawes to the Cleveland Cavaliers at the trade deadline last year, the Cavs didn’t exactly seem like they were giving up anything significant in return for their rental of the three-point shooting center from Washington. The crown jewels on the Sixers’ end were Cleveland and Memphis’s 2014 second-round picks, used to grab Jerami Grant and Vasilije Micic. The Cavs also threw in two players; Earl Clark, who was miserable for the Cavs, and was promptly waived, and a little-used backup center named Henry Sims.

Sims turned out to be a useful player for the 76ers, though. He was a small piece for the Cavs before the trade, but ended up starting all but one of the 26 games he played as a member of the 76ers last season.

In that time, he played 27.2 minutes per game, and averaged 11.8 points per game on 48.9 percent shooting, adding 7.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game as he was an integral part of the rotation as the Sixers mercilessly tanked down the stretch. He wasn’t what you could call a key contributor, but he could put up numbers and use possessions, so the Sixers played him, and eventually opted to bring him back for the 2014-2015 campaign.

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This season, Sims has played at about the same level as how he finished off 2014. He’s played in 63 of the 76ers’ 69 contests, and was a regular starter for the first 21 games of the campaign before the decision was made to insert Robert Covington into the starting lineup and shift Nerlens Noel to center prior to a December 12th contest against the Brooklyn Nets. Since then, he’s been a spot starter, getting 31 total starts on the season. He’s playing about 19.4 minutes per game this season, but he’s still shooting about the same (48.3 percent), and averaging 8.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. He’s functioned pretty well as the primary backup to Noel.

Sims is a restricted free agent this offseason and the Sixers could choose to offer him a qualifying offer of $1,181,348 million, or let him walk. He was a complete no-name until he joined the Sixers, having washed out in a quick stint with the New Orleans Hornets in 2012-2013, and looking positively dreadful in his limited minutes as the Cavs’ 12th man (And I mean that. I blogged for what is now King James Gospel at the time, and even our preseason analysis of Sims wasn’t exactly the most kind). Is there room on a 2015-2016 NBA roster for a guy who is a backup on one of the worst teams in the league?

Mar 2, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center

(35) drives to the basket against Toronto Raptors center

(17) during the second half at Wells Fargo Center. The Raptors defeated the 76ers 114-103. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

If Sims is going to stick, it would be helpful if we could find something that Sims does really well that fits in the modern NBA. Obviously, as a center, rim protection is the most sought-after trait that could get Sims another contract. However, Sims isn’t exactly Manute Bol out there. Per SportVU data, Sims is allowing 49.4 percent shooting at the rim when he’s available to contest the shot, which is pretty average among backup centers facing around 4.0 attempts at the rim per game.

Not exactly at the level of Noel, who faces 9.7 rim attempts per game and allows 45.6 percent shooting. It’s worth noting that Sims is pretty good at defending P-n-R roll men, allowing 0.63 points per possession (PPP) per Synergy. That’s another huge rim protecting skill, and he ranks in the 88th percentile of the league, but he’s defended just 32 such possessions this season, partly thanks to Noel. And that’s a theme when assessing Sims’s value as a rim protector; he’s pretty average, and it’s hard to extrapolate how he’d do as a primary rim protector, given how much time he routinely spends next to Noel, a legit rim protecting prospect.

How about use as a dive man on the screen and roll? Well, Sims is posting 0.77 PPP as the roll man in the P-n-R this season, good for the 14th percentile in the league. That’s not good, even if you account for the fact he hasn’t played with any point guards who can shoot off the P-n-R except Isaiah Canaan, and defenses are able to collapse in on him off the roll. He shoots just 40.5 percent on these plays, and that’s not indicative that he can fit this role either.

So if Sims isn’t in the mold of your prototypical modern NBA big, does he at least have some strengths?

Defensively, he’s a fairly strong rebounder, grabbing about 20 percent of available defensive rebounds this season. Other than that, he’s a pretty average defender overall. He’s a slightly below-average shot defender overall, with opponents shooting 1.8 percent better against him than average. Conversely, he’s a slightly above-average post-up defender, ranking in the 53rd percentile of the league. He’s almost perfectly average, which explains why the Sixers are only 0.2 points/100 possessions better defensively with him on the floor.

Offensively, it’s less kind. Sims can’t finish in the pick-and-roll, isn’t a good passer, and is a below-average scorer in the post. He does finish well on put-backs, but his offensive rebounding rate (8.8 percent) is not remarkable, so it’s not really a huge part of his game. Honestly, his biggest strength is probably that he has a developing mid-range game, shooting 43 percent on long twos this season, but even then, given the Sixers’ offensive style, he doesn’t really get a great chance to use that as a weapon.

If Sims has a future in the NBA, he needs to do a couple things. Offensively, he needs to turn that long-two range into three-point range, which he’s shot a little more frequently this season (0.3 attempts per game), shooting 22 percent. If that can take a step forward, Sims can stretch the floor a little better. Improving as an offensive rebounder would also make him more effective as a banger who can thrive off put-backs. Defensively, a better understanding of positioning would make a great difference. Sims has always been an okay defender because he tries hard, but isn’t always in the correct position to make plays on the defensive end, particularly under the basket.

Sims probably will get one more NBA shot after this season. He’ll turn 25 next week, meaning there’s still potential for some growth, he’s got a nice frame for a center, and he has stuck as a regular rotation player for about a season and a half. That counts for something.

He probably will never be anything more than a fourth big on a team, but if he can score more effectively from outside, he’s got a chance to stick. He’ll find a spot somewhere. However, it probably won’t be with the 76ers. With Joel Embiid coming in next season, and Noel showing this season that he can be effective from the center position, there’s not really room for Sims. However, someone will likely come calling with another spot. Above all else, Sims is 6’11”, and there aren’t many humans that can say that. If Kendrick Perkins and Lou Amundson can stick in the NBA, so can Henry Sims.