The Oregonian/OregonLive is taking a player-by-player look at the Portland Trail Blazers roster heading into the offseason.
Other posts: Jusuf Nurkic; Josh Hart; Nassir Little; Justise Winslow; Trendon Watford; Greg Brown III; Keon Johnson; CJ Elleby; Brandon Williams; Ben McLemore; Drew Eubanks; Elijah Hughes; Keljin Blevins; DiDi Louzada; Joe Ingles; Eric Bledsoe; Reggie Perry; Kris Dunn.
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Today: Anfernee Simons, 22, 6-3, point guard/shooting guard.
Contract status: Simons, a first-round pick in 2018, made $3.9 million this past season. He will become a restricted free agent when the Blazers issue him a qualifying offer of just over $5.7 million, something all but guaranteed to happen by the June 29 deadline. At that point, Simons can test the open market but the Blazers will be able to match any offer he receives.
Likelihood to return: The only way Simons wouldn’t return at this point is if the Blazers were presented with a blockbuster deal that brought a proven All-Star to Portland but required dealing Simons in a sign-and-trade to make it happen.
2021-22 contributions: Simons began the season as the team’s backup point guard behind Damian Lillard. Blazers coach Chauncey Billups challenged Simons to elevate his playmaking ability and commit to becoming a better defender. As a backup, Simons demonstrated improvement as a playmaker but that trait in his game really began to shine in January after he took over for Lillard, who left the lineup for good with an abdominal injury that later required surgery.
After shooting just 33% in December, Simons took flight starting Jan. 3 with a career-high 43-point performance in a win over Atlanta. Simons went on to average 23.1 points and 6.7 assists in January and had two 11-assist performances.
Maybe more impressively, Simons shot 46% from the field and 42.7% on threes (4.5 out of 10.5 per game). He continued to deliver in February, averaging 23.7 points and 4.7 assists while shooting 45.5% from the field and 38.8% on threes.
He played just two games in March before a knee injury ended his season. Simons’ final game came in a loss at Minnesota, where he scored 38 points while making 9 of 17 threes.
Simons finished the season having averaged 17.3 points and 3.9 assists per game. He shot 44.3% from the field and 40.5% on threes.
Strengths/weaknesses: Simons is an established sharpshooter from deep at this point. He led the team in the 2020-21 season in three-point shooting (42.6%) and proved that that wasn’t a fluke this season.
His greatest improvement came on two-point field goals. Simons hit on just 40.3% of such shots in 2020-21. But he took only 1.9 per game while playing 17.3 minutes per contest. Why? Well, former coach Terry Stotts gave Simons the green light to shoot threes and he said he knew that doing so and making them would keep him on the court.
Billups challenged Simons to use his athleticism to create other offensive opportunities, and Simons went on to demonstrate that he can pretty much get a shot from anywhere on the court and sink it.
Simons shot 49% on two-point attempts. He made 54.9% of his shots from less than eight feet and 45.9% from 8 to 16 feet.
As a playmaker, Simons used his ability to create space and get into the paint not only to score but also to set up teammates. He still has plenty of room to grow in this area, but Simons proved that he is more than simply a volume scorer.
Defensively, the Blazers will ask a lot of Simons next season, provided he starts alongside Lillard in the backcourt. It can’t be ignored that the Lillard-CJ McCollum combo was not good defensively and that the Blazers will once again have a 6-2 guard and a 6-3 guard trying to defend larger players on most nights.
Billups said he believes the team can get by with this combination should it surround them with competent defenders. Also, Simons is still growing as a defender. He will likely continue to add weight to his 181-pound frame and he is certainly athletic enough to be pesky on defense. But defending taller, larger players will undoubtedly be a challenge.
Simons had a 112.9 defensive rating this season, improved from 114.4 last season.
2022-23 outlook: The decision to trade McCollum to New Orleans was done in part to provide Simons a chance to start and allow his talents to flourish.
That move paid off. While McCollum, 30, is the more polished player right now, Simons is more athletic and thus potentially more versatile as a scorer.
Still, replacing McCollum’s dynamic on offense on a nightly basis for an entire season won’t be easy, and it’s something Simons has never done. McCollum was spectacular for six seasons and change. Simons has been darn good for just two months.
On defense, Simons said he appreciated how Billups challenged him nightly.
“I think over the past month that I was playing, Chauncey wasn’t holding back on who I was guarding,” Simons said. “So, he was putting me against the toughest players, regardless of my responsibilities on the offensive end. He wanted me to kind of go through that and take every matchup personally.”
Simons said he believes he can develop into a great defender.
“It’s very hard to be a great defender in the league,” Simons said. “There’s not many. There are a lot of good players that are good on the offensive end. You’ve just got to try your best to contain them and make them take tough shots.”
Beyond his expected contributions next season, Simons is in a position to become the face of the franchise at some point. Lillard, who turns 32 this summer, can’t play forever.
Say Lillard plays five more seasons at peak powers, Simons would just be entering his prime in 2027 at the age of 28 (he turns 23 on June 8.).
Given how Simons plays the game, he could help lend to Lillard’s longevity by taking over some point guard and scoring duties over the next several years. That would ease Lillard’s workload and possibly lengthen his years of maximum effectiveness.
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
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