Knicks center Jericho Sims sprained his right ankle after just three minutes of action in Monday’s win over the Lakers. Head coach Tom Thibodeau didn’t have an update after the game about the severity of the injury, per Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link), but Sims was in a walking boot, tweets Steve Popper of Newsday.
Still, it sounds like the injury may not be significant. According to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link), the Knicks are listing Sims as questionable to play in Wednesday’s contest vs. Brooklyn, which suggests he may not have to miss any time at all.
If Sims is forced to the sidelines, his absence figures to result in a significant role for reserve center Isaiah Hartenstein, who had already been getting the majority of playing time at the five since Mitchell Robinson went down.
On Monday, Hartenstein logged an impressive 39 minutes off the bench and played a key role in the victory — he grabbed a career-best 17 rebounds and the Knicks outscored the Lakers by 15 points when he was on the court. Recently added big man Taj Gibson was a minus-8 in his six minutes of action.
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- Prior to Monday’s win and Sims’ ankle injury, Stefan Bondy of The New York Post questioned whether Hartenstein should simply be moved into the starting lineup, since the groups with Sims at center haven’t been particularly effective, especially defensively. Since Robinson’s injury, New York has a +11.5 net rating with Hartenstein on the court and a -16.9 mark (including a 131.1 defensive rating) when Sims is playing.
- Facing his former Knicks team for the first time this season on Monday, Lakers forward Cam Reddish wasn’t willing to revisit the past, Bondy writes in another New York Post story. “I’ve got nothing for you,” Reddish said on his way out of the locker room. “My time in New York is over.” Asked about the former Knicks forward, who fell out of favor in New York and reportedly sought a trade, Thibodeau lauded the 24-year-old for being willing to accept his role in Los Angeles: “I think the first thing is to embrace the role, and I think he’s done a really good job of that.”
- Speaking to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, Josh Hart attributed his bumpy start to this season to adjusting to a new role and to not being in his usual rhythm after spending a long summer with Team USA. Still, Hart suggested he’d happily accept an invitation to the 2024 Olympic team — though he’s not necessarily holding his breath for that invite. “I’d be very pleasantly surprised if I get a call. If I do, I’ll go cheerlead LeBron (James), KD (Kevin Durant) and all of them and I would love every minute of it,” he said with a laugh.
- After seven straight lottery seasons from 2014-20, the Knicks are now a “fully functional” franchise and a solid playoff team, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com, who considers what it will take for the club to become more than that.
2014 – 2020 lottery picks !!!!!!! How many ??
Whaaaaaaaaaaatttttttt …………
2014 – we didn’t have a lottery pick. 34th pick in draft Cleanthony Early
2015 – KP 4th pick in the draft
2016 – Knicks had NO picks , zerooooooOO
2017 – Nttilikina 8th pick in the draft
2018 – Knox 9th pick in the draft
2019 – RJ 3rd pick in the draft
2020 – Obi1 8th pick in the draft
So that would be 5 lottery picks in Seven years. I know Knicks were bad. But get it right. So we can take you serious …….
Only RJ is still on team. He’s not getting traded any time soon …….
Randle a FA
Brunson a FA
Hart a FA
Hartenstein a FA
Donte a FA
This is what Thibs and Rose have done. All the while accumulating draft picks to trade.
link to basketball-reference.com
I don’t know if the text has changed since you wrote your comment, but it says “seven straight lottery seasons”. That is, seven seasons out of the PO (regardless of wether they had a lottery pick or not), which seems accurate.
As Otogar wrote, referring to them as “lottery seasons” is about where they finished, not what picks they made. Their first-round pick technically was in the lottery in both 2014 and 2016 — they’d just traded it away.
I like Sims and Hartenstein. This a chance for them to get noticed. They are solid backup Centers. That can spot start at times. We need them to play well.
Sims is terrible. Gibson is toast. Hartenstein needs help.
Mitch was off to a good start. Just sucks really. Sims and Hartenstein can hold it down. Just get healthy Mitch.
Knicks have been giving up a lot of points.
Hartenstein has been outplaying his contract since the middle of last season. I think he’s definitely up to playing starter minutes (it doesn’t matter if he nominally starts or not). The biggest negative with him playing well over 35 mins is that he’s a UFA at the end of the year, and the NYK won’t have full Bird Rights. The C position is the one spot in the NBA where players lack pricing power, so it might work out.
Hartenstein can’t replace Mitch’s level of rim protection, but its unlikely any player available to us could either (even if a 2 month absence warranted using the resources necessary). Offensive rebounding? Forget it, nobody just gives up those guys (other than some posters here in their proposed trades). The roster was constructed to withstand an injury any spot, except PF. Randle, like him or not, is the only player we could lose for 2 months that might trigger an entry into the trade market.
Boogie Cousins was available but Stubborn THIBS only like players who will bow Down to him. That means no Boogie Cousins no Marcus Morris two players that could easily help
Leon ” Du Nuthin ” Rose ain’t done Jack all season and now people expect this Clueless fool to react. Boogie was available Dwight Howard was available Kelly Olinick can be had Drummond can be traded for.There are players in the G League but watch Idiot THIBS try and bring back Juquin Noah.We always knew this could happen but this Inept Front Office was asleep which is what Leon Rose is good at