MugCostanza
Well-known member
There's been a fair amount of discussion about Sim lately so figured to just make a thread on it similar to the Kadary thread.
Sim is obviously a key part of this team as either a starter or the first guard off the bench. He's getting 25-30 mins a game against our top opponents and consistently getting 8-12 shots a game. On the surface his overall offensive numbers seem to be decent but if you take a deeper dive you'll see there are some serious issues here.
Out of our 19 games so far, 7 are considered tier A or B games per KenPom's system. Those games are
Tier A: Baylor, Georgia, @Creighton, @Xavier
Tier B: New Mexico, @Providence, Villanova
As you can see in the numbers above, there is a significant drop in his metrics when playing against the stiffer competition. For those that may not be numbers nerds, an Offensive Rating in the low 80s is horrifically bad and you don't need to be a numbers nerd to see that those shooting percentages are awful.
An argument could be made that 7 games is not a large enough sample size, but I would disagree and also add that in two other games falling just outside the tier B category (vButler, vGeorgetown) he's a combined 3/16 with 2 Asts and 3 TOs.
The eye test matches the numbers too. He's looked like he doesn't belong in these high level games. The looks he's been getting have generally been decent to good looks too. His numbers aren't being artificially deflated by having to force shots up late in the shot clock as he is not the one with the ball in those situations.
Defensively, he grades out fairly well on the sites that have metrics that track defensive impact. Individual defensive metrics are always tough to trust but I think he's been good on that end which is why Pitino is willing to give him big minutes while his offensive numbers are lagging. That, and there aren't a ton of reliable options behind him.
Sim can be the difference between this team being good and being really good. I think we're in a very good position to be where we're at recordwise with a ~28mpg guy playing this poorly offensively. That said, 10 of our final 12 regular season games fall in the Tier A/B category and we need Sim to pick it up offensively in a big way in those games if we want to really be in the mix to win this league's regular season championship. His current numbers against good teams is just untenable and will sink us if it continues.
Sim is obviously a key part of this team as either a starter or the first guard off the bench. He's getting 25-30 mins a game against our top opponents and consistently getting 8-12 shots a game. On the surface his overall offensive numbers seem to be decent but if you take a deeper dive you'll see there are some serious issues here.
Out of our 19 games so far, 7 are considered tier A or B games per KenPom's system. Those games are
Tier A: Baylor, Georgia, @Creighton, @Xavier
Tier B: New Mexico, @Providence, Villanova
As you can see in the numbers above, there is a significant drop in his metrics when playing against the stiffer competition. For those that may not be numbers nerds, an Offensive Rating in the low 80s is horrifically bad and you don't need to be a numbers nerd to see that those shooting percentages are awful.
An argument could be made that 7 games is not a large enough sample size, but I would disagree and also add that in two other games falling just outside the tier B category (vButler, vGeorgetown) he's a combined 3/16 with 2 Asts and 3 TOs.
The eye test matches the numbers too. He's looked like he doesn't belong in these high level games. The looks he's been getting have generally been decent to good looks too. His numbers aren't being artificially deflated by having to force shots up late in the shot clock as he is not the one with the ball in those situations.
Defensively, he grades out fairly well on the sites that have metrics that track defensive impact. Individual defensive metrics are always tough to trust but I think he's been good on that end which is why Pitino is willing to give him big minutes while his offensive numbers are lagging. That, and there aren't a ton of reliable options behind him.
Sim can be the difference between this team being good and being really good. I think we're in a very good position to be where we're at recordwise with a ~28mpg guy playing this poorly offensively. That said, 10 of our final 12 regular season games fall in the Tier A/B category and we need Sim to pick it up offensively in a big way in those games if we want to really be in the mix to win this league's regular season championship. His current numbers against good teams is just untenable and will sink us if it continues.
, he’s been waiting on this thread 
