During the NBA All-Star break, we'll take a look at some of the Sixers’ newcomers and their prospects for the future with the team.
Henry Sims
Height: 6-10
Weight: 245
Position: Center
Strengths and weaknesses
Sometimes having no style is style. In the case of Henry Sims, the no-nonsense approach is his forte. Sims plays defense, he gets rebounds, he can set a pick and bury an 18-footer. As long as Sims isn’t asked to stray beyond those strengths, he’s a fine contributor.
It is that no-nonsense attitude that endears Sims to coach Brett Brown. Raised in Baltimore and schooled under John Thompson III at Georgetown, Sims came to the Sixers from Cleveland in the Spencer Hawes trade with a not-so-sunny disposition. His attitude is to put in the work and not to worry about style points.
“There is a grumpiness that I like. There is a toughness that I like,” Brown said about Sims during training camp last October. “I feel he is an NBA player. He's a keeper.”
Performance so far
Despite the accolades for his perceived grumpiness, Sims has seen his minutes drop as the season wears on. After landing with the Sixers at the deadline last season, Sims averaged 27 minutes and started 25 of his 26 appearances with the Sixers.
Though he’s the only Sixer to appear in every game this year, Sims has seen his place in the starting lineup vanish and his minutes dip to a little more than 20 per game. Over the last 23 games, Sims has started just seven times and topped 20 minutes in a game only four times.
NBA
After averaging nearly 10 points and 23 minutes per game in the first 33 of the season, Sims has averaged 7.3 points and 16.6 minutes over the last 20 games.
Nevertheless, Sims hasn’t complained or pouted about his dwindling playing time as the Sixers have gone with Luc Mbah a Moute, Robert Covington and Nerlens Noel in the frontcourt.
“He is a man. He acts like a man, he talks like a man,” Brown said of the 24-year-old Sims during training camp. “He is a leader.”
Highs
Sims has scored in double figures in 26 of the Sixers’ 53 games this season with a season-high of 22 points in a 10-point loss to Portland on Nov. 24. His best game may have been in the Nov. 7 loss in Phoenix, where Sims scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds in just 18 minutes.
Lows
Sims has had a particularly difficult time against Atlanta this season, scoring just three points in three games against the first-place Hawks with just one field goal in 10 attempts. Sims is hardly alone there, but there have been instances when Brown has gone with a smaller and quicker lineup against teams with strong big men like Atlanta.
Secure or need to see more?
The Sixers have had a long look at Sims over the 53 games this season and 26 last year and Brown appears to like him as a big man off the bench for up to 20 minutes a night.
However, with Noel and Covington emerging in the frontcourt and top pick Joel Embiid earmarked as the team’s future big man, the handwriting is on the wall for Sims. It’s difficult to see Sims playing a significant role — or any role at all — with the Sixers beyond this season.