Utah Jazz sign bigman Henry Sims

The Utah Jazz announced today that they have signed free agent bigman Henry Sims.

Their press release is as follows:

The Utah Jazz announced today that the team has signed free agent center Henry Sims. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not released.

Sims (6-10, 248, Georgetown) has appeared in 135 NBA games over four seasons with New Orleans, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, owning career averages of 7.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 assist in 18.8 minutes per game. Sims finished the 2015-16 season with the Nets, appearing in 14 games (four starts) and averaging 6.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.0 block in 18.8 minutes of action.

He has also spent time in the NBA D-League with the Erie BayHawks, Canton Charge and Grand Rapids Drive. Sims averaged 15.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 30.0 minutes per game before signing with Brooklyn in March of 2016.

The Baltimore native, played four years at Georgetown (2008-12), averaging 11.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.4 blocks as a senior. He played high school basketball at Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore.

He will wear jersey #30 for the Jazz.

The Utah Jazz, NBA.com, 2016

I’m a big Henry Sims fan. He’s been in the Utah Jazz pipeline for a while now, having had previously played for the Jazz in the Orlando Summer League (back in 2012) and then being invited to free agent mini camp (back in 2013). Today he has found hard enough to make it to the Utah Jazz training camp (2016-2017). Yes, he will get a chance to battle it out against Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert, Boris Diaw, Trey Lyles, and Jeff Withey. Why? Because he’s hungry to show what he can do.

He is not a modern era bigman, his best NBA season from outside was 2014-2015 with Philly where he went 4 from 22 from deep. It’s possible that he has improved on that over the years, but he did not show it in the summer league last July. He went 0 for 2 with Brooklyn. What he does do is bring that hunger to camp. If everyone there already has a spot and nothing to fight for you may not be at your best. Sims, like many of the other signings, like Quincy Ford and Marcus Paige primarily, will be there to make the rest of our team better.

Also, it gives them a chance to maybe get a call-back for the D League team. There’s something about Sims that the Jazz brass like. I trust their judgement.

I also love The Sims, that video game that came out waaay back in 2000. (Yes, one of my degrees is in psychology and I love fixing broken families.) Instead of showing you a highlight video of Henry, I am going to play this video instead. In a way, it’s more meaningful.

Okay, that’s not fair to Henry. Here he is dropping 27 points in the NBADL last year:

I’m rooting for you Henry, do your thing! And congrats on making Jazz training camp!