Portland Trail Blazers: Anfernee Simons’ potential role next season

How could Anfernee Simons help the Portland Trail Blazers next season?

The Portland Trail Blazers participated in a wing swap on Monday, trading away Evan Turner to the Atlanta Hawks and bringing in Kent Bazemore. While this boosted Portland’s shooting and wing players, it also affects the team’s guard depth as well.

Although he was 6-foot-6, Turner was essentially the Blazers’ backup point guard. While his fit was never perfect in Portland, sliding Turner into this role was the best possible way to utilize him, and it offered players such as Seth Curry (and even Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum) the ability to rest off ball.

While Bazemore is obviously a better team fit, he is not the level of ball handler, creator, and playmaker that Turner was. Not only will McCollum need to play on ball more, but Portland also needs to find a third guard who can come off the bench.

The most likely candidate for that role? Anfernee Simons.

2018’s 24th pick essentially had a redshirt rookie year, only seeing double digit minutes in four of the 20 games that he played in. As a prep to pro draftee, Simons was highly talented, but underdeveloped physically.

He did not see much time on the court, both due to his lack of development as well as Portland’s deep bench. When he did play, he shined, as evidenced by his 37 point, 6 rebound, and 9 assist outing against the Sacramento Kings.

Neil Olshey has been extremely bullish on Simons since he has been drafted, calling him a lottery talent if he had went to college. Even at the press conference following the 2019 NBA Draft, Olshey could not stop gushing about Simons’ talent, per OregonLive.

"“He’s as talented as anyone we’ve ever drafted since I’ve been here, in terms of just natural gifts. He’s not the player [Damian Lillard] and [C.J. McCollum] were, but in terms of just natural, God-given, basketball ability, Anfernee is as gifted as anybody I’ve ever drafted. So we’re expecting big things from him.”"

Simons is an extremely versatile player, with the ability to play both on and off the ball. He needs to improve as a shooter on the move, but he seemed to be solid off the catch. And of course, he has shown the ability to be dynamic with the ball in his hands.

The truth is that no one really knows what Simons can bring to Portland. Despite what we have seen in an extremely limited sample size during the regular season and the 2018 Summer League, it just is not smart to make assumptions based off of that.

What we do know is that Simons is extremely talented, and if he is as good as advertised, he could a heavily relied upon player next season.