Last month during the NBA Draft Combine, when Jericho Sims was raising his stock and opening eyes with a 44.5-inch max vertical, Shaka Smart got a call from an NBA decision-maker whose team was in the playoffs. “We could have used him physically and athletically last night in our game,” Smart was told.
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Smart had three frontcourt players at Texas last season who will likely play in the NBA this winter, and he believes the 22-year-old Sims is the most ready to contribute right away. That’s because the way he played for the Longhorns is similar to how he’ll be used in the NBA. The New York Knicks drafted him 58th.
“Sprinting the floor, pick and roll, catch and finishing,” says Smart, who’s now the coach at Marquette. “I think he’s in the top five in the country in dunks. He’s good at dunking. There’s nothing wrong with that, like, not everyone has to be Kevin Durant. There’s a reason that there’s only one like that. So that’s one thing I really appreciate about Jericho is he doesn’t mind doing those things.”
Sims, 6-10 and 245 pounds, is built like a monster and jumps like one too. You’ve probably seen this video below where he accidentally put his eye on the rim.
The bounce on NBA prospect Jericho Sims 👀
He hit his eye on the rim while throwing down a dunk at #KlutchProDay.
🎥 @MGRADS pic.twitter.com/dXc2ytWl5S
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) July 14, 2021
Sims’ strength and athleticism was best utilized at Texas on the defensive end. The Longhorns held opponents to just 44.5 percent shooting inside the arc this season with Sims on the floor, per Hooplens.com. Sims never blocked a lot of shots, but he was good at vertically contesting at the rim and not fouling.
“His number one attribute is defense,” Smart says. “He can defend any position. He has the physicality to deal with big and strong players at that level, but he also has a quickness to deal with guys that are hard to stay in front of.
“He got a lot better the second half of his career. He always had the athleticism and the quickness to deal with perimeter guys, but he didn’t really early on have the basketball IQ to deal with some of the actions that happen out there on the perimeter or some of the movements, exchanges, cutting. He got way better at that.”
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Smart then went on a rant he had made in March after Texas won the Big 12 tournament title, expressing his frustration that Sims wasn’t even selected on the Big 12’s All-Defensive team. An argument could be made he was the best defensive center in college basketball.
So Sims was sometimes overlooked in the Big 12, and the same was true on his own team at times. He finished the season strong, scoring in double figures in five straight games, highlighted by a career-high 12 points, 14 rebounds, three steals and two blocks in a dominant performance against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 title game.
Not only was Sims awesome on defense that night, but he was also splendid offensively, showing off the entire arsenal. Maybe he’ll be all dunks and rebounding in the NBA, but he showed he could do more that night. He scored with between-the-legs dribble moves, up-and-unders and then his patented rim-rattling dunks. So, yes, he did only average 9.2 points as a senior, but he probably deserved more touches considering he shot 69.6 percent for the year and an eye-popping 75.3 percent in Big 12 games.
It took some time for Sims to figure out how good he could be after spending his first two years behind one-and-done big men Mo Bamba and Jaxson Hayes. Smart had to get Sims, who is quiet, to be more assertive, and eventually he got there.
“He really really grew up,” Smart says. “He started to communicate in a way better way with his teammates. He was more of an energy giver. He always wanted to win, but he showed it more. He showed like, ‘Come on, let’s get this stop.’”
If the Knicks can get Sims to play with the kind of confidence he finally found late in his senior season, then they could have one of the draft’s steals. And, as the NBA decision-maker suggested to Smart last month, a guy ready to play right away.
(Photo: Sam Wasson / Getty Images)
C.J. Moore, a staff writer for The Athletic, has been on the college basketball beat since 2011. He has worked at Bleacher Report as the site’s national college basketball writer and also covered the sport for CBSSports.com and Basketball Prospectus. He is the coauthor of "Beyond the Streak," a behind-the-scenes look at Kansas basketball's record-setting Big 12 title run. Follow CJ on Twitter @cjmoorehoops
