Sims adds athleticism to Milwaukee’s big depth
With Hoops Hype’s Michael Scotto previously reporting on the Milwaukee Bucks’ interest in New York Knicks backup centre Jericho Sims yesterday, this move was on the horizon. Sims, a four-year pro out of Texas, adds to the Bucks frontcourt depth and offers insurance if a deal involving Bobby Portis occurs over the next 24 hours. ESPN’s Shams Charania also reporting that Milwaukee is sending Delon Wright and cash to New York in exchange for Sims.
FROM SHAMS:
The New York Knicks are trading center Jericho Sims to the Milwaukee Bucks as part of Bucks-Washington Wizards/Kyle Kuzma-Khris Middleton deal, sources tell ESPN.
— Shams Charania Tweets (& Other NBA News) (@shamsbot.bsky.social) 2025-02-06T03:20:37.021Z
Sims provides nuclear athleticism at the centre spot, something the Bucks have been lacking for years. Additionally, Sims injects youth into an aging roster at just 26 years old. With the arrival of Karl-Anthony Towns, Sims has averaged just 10 minutes per game this season, even with Mitchell Robinson being out injured all season.
As for his on-court production, Sims’ numbers are nothing special this season. He’s averaging 1.6 points (shooting 60%) and 3.3 rebounds in about 10 minutes per contest. Sims is your prototypical lob-catching big; unless the shot clock is running down, he’ll never shoot from outside five feet. Sims’ best year in the association came in his second season, where he averaged 3.4 points and 4.7 rebounds while shooting an impressive 77% from the field.
When Delon Wright signed with Milwaukee in the offseason—coming off an impressive playoff showing with Miami—many fans were excited about the two-way ability he could bring to the team. Unfortunately, Wright just never found his niche with the Bucks, averaging just 2.5 points and 1.8 assists on .270/.240/.560 shooting splits in 26 appearances.
Also involved in the deal, according to The Athletic’s Fred Katz, is a swap of draft rights to overseas players. Some may remember Bucks late-second-round pick Hugo Besson… a Buck (well, sort of) no longer. In exchange, Milwaukee is acquiring the draft rights to longtime EuroLeague stalwart Mathias Lessort.
Knicks will acquire he draft rights to Hugo Besson and send out the draft rights to Mathias Lessort in the Jericho Sims deal, league source says.
— Fred Katz (@fredkatz.bsky.social) 2025-02-06T03:38:04.662Z
And here is our Van Fayaz with some info for the cap nerds:
Quick math on the Sims add to the trade doesn’t change much for the Bucks. He makes all of $5k more than Wright, so just another $17k in tax payment or something.
They’ll have his Bird rights this summer, though, if they want to re-sign him (he’s expiring).
— Van Fayaz (@vanfayaz.bsky.social) 2025-02-06T03:52:23.522Z
Since the Bucks are trading away more money in the wider deal than they’re taking back (even though Sims makes a few thousand more than Wright), this isn’t something that would hard cap them at the first apron. A straight Sims-for-Wright deal would have, which it why it needs to be folded into the Middleton and Johnson for Kuzma and Baldwin trade. However, since Milwaukee is sending cash to New York in this contract, they will be hard-capped at the $188.9m second apron as a result.
As always, we’ll update this post if and when more info comes out.