Sacramento Kings: Is Sim Bhullar Worth Revisiting?
As previously examined, Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl is amenable to having additions to the 2015-16 roster come from any combination of free agency signings, the draft, or sensible trades.
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His primary concerns, which he made clear earlier in the month, have to do with the team’s ability to retain the explosive offensive contributions from those who can already make them, while adding offensive and defensive ball security.
This would be desirable in the following forms: an emphasis on more fluid and frequent passing, the proliferation of aggressive rebounding, and the elimination of excessive turnovers.
Sim Bhullar‘s height would be intriguing and perhaps blinding to front offices and coaching staffs looking to fill in the most basic defensive utilities. However, throughout his time with the Sacramento Kings, the 7’5″ Bhullar has struggled to establish an identity beyond that of a technical NBA ground-breaker.
During his April 10-day contract, he logged only 2 minutes and 41 seconds over a course of three games, with one block, one rebound (a defensive board against the Jazz), and two points from a causal hook.
Though one can’t place too much scrutiny on the on-court performance of someone given so little time to prove himself, Bhullar’s strengths, when weighed against his weaknesses, may keep him relegated to the footnotes of NBA history.
Bhullar’s height is hampered by hampered by his equally remarkable weight. Bhullar’s weight listings have ranged from an orbit-creating 360 pounds to a svelte 355, his official NBA weight being listed as the former. This makes him the heaviest listed NBA player in the league’s history, per basketball-reference.com.
Though he did fairly well during his time with the Reno Bighorns, Bhullar’s numbers were not suggestive of well-rounded dominance. His 3.9 blocks per game proved that his genetic capital could cash at least one check, and Mr. Bhullar did indeed lead the D-League in blocks during the 2014-15 season.
Even in the context of a farm team setting, the big man’s physique calls his abilities into question, despite that accomplishment. His lack of athleticism is known to be an easy area of focus for skeptics, but that density of doubt is not unjustified.
Though the novelty value of the league’s tallest player is something that can buoy that person’s career, the more valuable asset in bigs as of late is their diversity of play. Look at the comparatively petite DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis — centers who can break outside the mold of the one-trick monolith to become their respective teams’ offensive leaders.
Cousins was one of the top-20 scorers in the league this season (even with his health issues), and was fifth in per-game points. Four of the top 10 most-efficient players during the recently-concluded regular season were centers, be they part- or full-time at that position.
Bhullar’s value would be rooted in old-school brick-wall tactics, and would not seem to fill in the cracks left by Cousins’ weaknesses.
Bhullar came to national prominence during his time at New Mexico State, running up numbers similar to those that would follow in Reno. Bhullar averaged 2.9 blocks per game with the Aggies, with performances reaching an astonishing 10 in a single game, and averaged 7.2 rebounds per game with a high water mark of 18.
Though he was heavy as ever during his collegiate years, Bhullar was necessarily the focal point of the Marvin Menzies’ system. Since his departure to the NBA, the Aggies have pivoted to a more mobile and guard-centric style, making yet another appearance in the NCAA tournament, falling to Kansas in the first round.
They are still capable in terms of blocks and rebounds, but the load is carried more evenly amongst the roster.
During their 2014-15 season, the Reno Bighorns modeled their offense after, lo and behold, a George Karl-like system of channeled and directed chaos. Though Bhullar’s stamina was tested by Bighorns’ head coach David Arseneault Jr., the additional grind of a full NBA season might be a touch too much for the Toronto native.
This is not to say that Bhullar can’t have the odd night of defensive dominance (as can be seen below), but a solid role which allows him to do more than cast a cold shadow over the paint seems less likely the more one considers the reality of 82 classic Karl run-and-gun NBA games.
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Throughout his post-high school hoops career, Bhullar has had low assist numbers, and has generally warps the offense of his team, for better and for worse. His height and presence in the low post drive his teammates to feed him the ball, and he is relied on to make an easy hook, dunk, or layup, and failing that, grab an offensive rebound and seal the deal.
He is not, for whatever reason, someone given to finding an outside shooter and facilitating a particularly impressive passing game. This would likely keep him from fitting into the Kings’ current iteration, and even if the team had continued on with Mike Malone’s more defensively-balanced system, it seems unlikely that Bhullar would have been granted anything more than a 10-day stint.
Unfortunately, Bhullar’s style of play may have already seen its day in the sun. During his time with the New Mexico State Aggies, the Reno Bighorns, and his blink-quick time with the Sacramento Kings, Bhullar has been the stationary swatter in the middle of a more active system. He has yet to show his conditioning is of consequence, and to show that he can “play himself into shape.”
His easy hook shots, effortless blocks, and solid rebounding have been assets to him as of now, but his contributions would seem marginal on a team which claims to want DeMarcus Cousins around for the foreseeable future.
Next: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time
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