A member of the Brooklyn Nets for just fourteen games to close out the season, center Henry Sims arrived in New York after spending time with the Grand Rapids Drive of the NBA D-League. Though he was just a ten-day signee to start, he did have the chance to play a decent amount of minutes as the season wore down.
With Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young sitting for the final six games of the year, the Nets chose to keep Sims on past the expiration of his second ten-day contract with the team. This period at the conclusion of the season was new General Manager Sean Marks’ chance to see what he had with each of the players on the roster.
The door was open for Sims to prove that he belonged in the NBA long-term, but he wasn’t able to capitalize on it to the degree that he would have liked. Though he showed flashes, he still lacked the type of consistency that’s needed to stick at the NBA level.
On offense, Sims plays more of a face-up role and doesn’t have the strength to overpower defenders at the NBA level, but his jump shot is rather inconsistent. He’s a decent finisher at the rim, but more often than not he opted to shoot from mid-range, an area in which he connected on around a third of his shots.
He’s a decent passer out of the post and at 25-years old with years of experience playing in the D-League, at Georgetown and brief stays in the NBA, Sims has a pretty good idea of where to be on the court at all times. He’s not going to blow anyone away offensively, but he does enough on that end where he’s not a negative.
Defensively, Sims can be pushed around a bit despite his 250-pound frame. Even with that seemingly decent amount of weight, he appears wiry due to his incredible 7’4 wingspan. Though he can be outmuscled under the net, he’s able to make up for it to some degree due to that great length.
Even with that, however, he’s not a feared shot-blocker by any means and won’t be confused for a top rim protector, either. Much like his work on the offensive end, he does enough to get by and isn’t a massive negative by any means.
Aside from those areas, Sims is one of the hardest working players on the team, if nothing else. He’s constantly fighting for rebounds, chasing after loose balls and running up and down the court. While those things won’t typically show up on the stat sheet, they do provide value to the team.
With his free agency looming, there is a chance that Sims could return as a fifth big man for the team, though more likely than not they’ll look elsewhere to fill that void. If Sims is unable to catch on with an NBA team, he’ll likely have suitors all over the international scene looking to swoop him up.
Though he wasn’t overly impressive in his time with the Nets this year, he didn’t really do all that much bad, either.