Hornets-Bucks Off-season Move

As a Pacers fan I was thinking a lot about what Zubac does for our perimeter guys. Zubac is a threat the the rim and collapses defenders into the paint because teams don’t want to give up points. This leads to open kick out, or room to shoot a midrange depending on where Zubac is in the paint.

I think Charlotte could benefit from a similar archetype of big like Jericho Sims you could realistically get him in the off-season with a second round pick. A non-shooting big the converts at the rim at an elite rate; 83%.

The LaMelo–Knueppel–Bridges–Sims-Miller Lineup

Sims acts as the gravitational anchor that warps the defense inward, while three elite perimeter weapons feast on the space he creates.

When LaMelo runs pick-and-roll with Kalkbrenner or Diabaté, opposing centers can drop deep into the paint because neither big is a guaranteed lob-catch finisher. That lets the drop center simultaneously protect the rim and take away LaMelo’s floater window. LaMelo’s options shrink to: pull-up three (contested), or reset.

Sims is shooting 83.6% from the field which is quite literally the highest mark on the Bucks’ roster. This is on nothing but dunks, lobs, and putbacks. When a center is converting at that rate within four feet, drop coverage becomes suicidal. The opposing five cannot sag below the free-throw line because if LaMelo lobs it over the top, Sims will go and get it. That means the defender has to hedge higher on the screen, which does three things for LaMelo:

Opens the driving lane.

If the center hedges up to take away the lob, LaMelo’s can snake around the screen and get into the paint with a straight-line drive. No help is coming because Sims is occupying the weak-side big or rolling into dunker spot.

Creates the skip pass read.

When the defense rotates to cut off LaMelo’s drive, the weak-side help has to collapse — but Sims is standing in the dunker spot demanding attention. That second rotation never comes cleanly, which gives LaMelo a window to skip it to the opposite corner. That’s where Kon is. It is quite literally a lose lose situation.

Frees LaMelo’s lob artistry.

LaMelo is one of the best lob passers in the league he throws lobs at an elite rate even with inferior targets. Sims catches everything above the rim. The pick-and-roll between those two becomes a pure two-man game where the defense has no good answer: hedge the screen and give up the lob, or drop back and give LaMelo an open pull-up or driving lane.

How this works for Bridges.

He’s taking like 4 midrange attempts and 6 three-point attempts per game. Bridges’ three-point percentage is 3 points below the league average of 35.9%. The problem isnt that Bridges can’t shoot, I’m pretty sure he’s had months where he’s hit 50%+ from three. When Charlotte’s center isn’t commanding paint attention, help defenders can cheat off the roll man toward Bridges on the wing, arriving in time to get a hand up. With Sims, the help defender can’t cheat.

If LaMelo initiates pick-and-roll with Sims, the opposing center hedges up to contain the lob threat. The weak-side help defender (usually the man guarding the power forward or wing) has two responsibilities: (a) tag Sims if he rolls to the basket, and (b) recover to his man. With a non-threatening center, the help can fake the tag and immediately recover to the perimeter. With Sims rolling at 83.6% efficiency, that fake tag becomes a real tag and the help defender has to commit his body toward the paint for a full beat.

This collapses the defense into the paint and let’s Miles Bridges do this thing.

Cleaner midrange pull-ups. Wider three-point windows. Downhill drives with no rim protector. On the possessions where Bridges does pump-fake and drive, the opposing center is already displaced because he hedged the LaMelo-Sims pick-and-roll. There’s no shot-blocker at the rim. Bridges is shooting 61.4% at the rim, and that number goes up when the paint is cleared by Sims’ inward gravity.

Knueppel is already having a historic rookie season — 18.8 points per game, 48.3% from the field, and 261+ made threes to break the franchise single-season record. He’s shooting 44–48% from three in recent months on 7.7 attempts per game. Imagine if he had more space and wider 3 point windows, it would be free eats for Kon.

In the LaMelo-Sims pick-and-roll, the defensive rotations create a cascade of help:

1. The opposing center hedges up on LaMelo → Sims rolls to the basket

2. The help-side defender tags Sims → leaves his man (often the player guarding the weak-side wing or corner)

3. The second rotation defender (often the player guarding Knueppel) has to choose: stay home on Kon, or help on the collapsed defense

If the second rotation stays home on Kon the drive-and-kick to Bridges is open, and Bridges scores in the midrange or gets fouled.

If the second rotation helps off Kon, LaMelo or Bridges kicks it to Knueppel for a wide-open catch-and-shoot three. A wide-open Knueppel three is essentially a layup in expected value terms. He’s shooting nearly 50% from three in multiple recent months on contested looks. Give him clean ones and that changes games especially in the playoffs

I guess the bottom line is Jericho Sims (83.6% field goal percentage) is your anchor, lob target, roll man, and an excellent screener that collapses the defense inward, creating space for everyone else.