The New York Knicks must face the reality that they’ll be without starting center Mitchell Robinson until December or January. With that comes a pressing need for their talented soon-to-be fourth-year center Jericho Sims to strive toward taking the next step in his professional career next season.
The Knicks are already suffering from the offseason departure of former featured center Isaiah Hartenstein, who left New York for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now, they have large shoes to fill with last season’s top offensive rebounder in Robinson needing at least the first 19 games of the year to recuperate from surgery.
The Knicks need Jericho Sims to produce as their lone true center to start the season
Sims has shown that he can be exactly what the Knicks need from him — an athletic lob threat who can use his gargantuan frame to set excellent screens, roll to and finish at the basket, and protect the rim with verve. The 25-year-old has admittedly had to carve out a role for himself in New York next to Robinson and Hartenstein, but at one point, he was looked to by Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau as the latter’s favored option to spell for Robinson in the starting lineup, and that changed abruptly in 2023-24.
Sims’ track record suggests he can approximate the value on the glass
Now that the Texas product and Precious Achiuwa are the only players left who can hold down the fort at center on a full-time basis, New York will need Sims to rise to the occasion. His peripherals show that he can do that. Sims proved that he can be a fringe double-double performer in the Big Apple. When he saw 30 or more minutes in a game last time out, he put up around eight points and eight rebounds.
He also proved he can be an elite rebounder in limited minutes, with 6.3 boards averaged across 13 games where he played 20-29 minutes and 4.1 rebounds in the nine contests where he played 10-19 minutes. The Knicks will require him to fall somewhere between the latter two averages at the least, as he’s their only big over 6-9 that can guard the giants in the Eastern Conference, a la 7-2 Boston Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis.
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Achiuwa will likely get the bulk of minutes at the five, even if he backs up Sims, and coach Thibodeau’s recent admission that All-Star Julius Randle will see time as the backup five will also further the even distribution of minutes at the position.
No matter, Sims needs to be ready to handle duties in situations that call for it, and more critically, work toward being the best player he can be given the great amount of talent and natural gifts he possesses. Should he perform poorly throughout the fall, the Knicks’ championship chances could be greatly jeopardized.
