Jericho Sims has a path to a real Bucks role, and it starts with the same kind of movement that made Giannis Antetokounmpo such a problem for defenses.
With Giannis making his way to the Miami Heat, Milwaukee is going to have to find a new player to own that cutting lane. Sims looks like the cleanest fit. He was already one of the Bucks’ most productive finishers when he slipped behind defenders last season, and there’s a case that his job should only grow from here.
The numbers back that up. Sims led Milwaukee with 112 points off cuts last season, and he did it the way you’d want a rim-runner to do it: almost everything came right at the basket.
Milwaukee’s ball-handlers kept finding him, and he kept cashing in. Giannis was second on the team with 90 points off cuts despite playing only 34 games, which tells you how much this action mattered for the Bucks’ offense.
The efficiency was the real eye-opener. Sims finished 51-of-59 on those cuts, good for 86.4 percent.
Among players across the league with at least 50 attempts on cuts, that was the best mark in the NBA. Zion Williamson was next at 81.1 percent, and he still wasn’t close.
That kind of production isn’t something Milwaukee should treat casually. Sims has shown a real feel for timing those moves, and the Bucks can’t afford to let that kind of value sit there unused.
The formula for him is pretty straightforward. When Sims is on the floor, he needs to stay active and keep working into those seams. Nobody is asking him to be Giannis, but the spacing that once opened doors for Antetokounmpo could help Sims in a similar way, giving him room to attack the rim before defenses can load up.
Milwaukee’s center room gives the Bucks options, too. Myles Turner and Kel’el Ware can both stretch the floor, which means they could share the court with Sims instead of boxing him out of the rotation. And with Taylor Jenkins now in place, Sims has another reason to believe this can be more than a depth role, since Jenkins has paired two big men together before.
That’s the whole job description here. Role players have roles, and for Sims, the path is simple: keep cutting, keep moving, and keep punishing defenses that lose track of him.
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At media day, the emphasis around Jenkins kept coming back to accountability and growth, the kind of language teams usually use when they want to show a clean break from the previous chapter. For Milwaukee, the appeal seems to be bigger than a fresh voice on the sideline. Jenkins is being positioned as someone who can shape the day-to-day culture, steady the locker room and push the group toward a higher level, which makes his first season here feel like more than a standard coaching change. [Read more 🡒]