Fans wondering where Canadian center Sim Bhullar was during the Raptors 905′ franchise-opening back-to-back in Fort Wayne this weekend have an answer: He was at home.
The Brampton native will not travel with the 905 to start the season, the team announced Sunday. The organization feels that Bhullar needs to work on his conditioning, something he’ll do exclusively in the Toronto area for the time being. It’s unclear if that means he’ll be available to play in early-season home games like the home opener on Thursday, but it stands to reason that he will.
It’s hard to fault the franchise for making this move, even if it does seem a little odd at first blush. Watching him play, conditioning is very clearly the biggest impediment to Bhullar having on-court success, and the rigors of traveling and the resultant lost practice time could detract from the plan the team has laid out for the NBA’s first ever player of Indian descent. At 7-foot-5 and 360 pounds, Bhullar is never going to be svelte, but getting him to the point where he can effectively play stints longer than three or four minutes without his performance suffering is an entirely reasonable near-term goal for Bhullar and the team’s training staff.
Bhullar averaged 26.3 minutes as a senior at New Mexico State in 2013-14 and 25.8 minutes in the D-League last year, appearing in 39 of Reno’s 48 games. An affiliate of the Sacramento Kings, Reno played at a ludicrous pace, so it was moderately surprising to see Bhullar able to handle such a minutes load. The 905 are seemingly less comfortable with his ability to do so again, and with Lucas Nogueira also present and in need of minutes, this set up may prove the best way to serve the long-term success of both centers.
The 22-year-old Bhullar averaged 10.3 points on 72.7 percent shooting with Reno, adding 8.8 rebounds and 3.9 blocks and earning All-Defensive second team honors. He was rewarded with a three-game cup of coffee with the Kings, totaling three minutes of action.
A major presence at the rim despite his athletic limitations, Bhullar’s offensive game consists almost entirely of cleaning up garbage inside. His stature is such that he has some potential as a defensive-minded third-string center at the NBA level, though coaches will have to game plan around his limited mobility.
