4 parts of his game Anfernee Simons must elevate to become an All-Star

With Damian Lillard shut down and the team woefully far from the play-in picture, it’s time for the Portland Trail Blazers to look ahead to next season and take stock of the roster.

Having started the year with the seventh-youngest team in the NBA, Portland’s prospects need to go under the microscope, and that starts with Anfernee Simons.

Simons is wrapping us his fifth and best year as an NBA player, having established himself as a starter in the backcourt for the Blazers. As the featured second option next to Lillard, Simons averaged career-highs in points, assists, and steals per game, alongside a career-high shooting percentage from the field.

Simons thrived as a second option for the Blazers – even if he isn’t a star quite yet – but if the team wants to begin contending for titles, it’ll need to see some key improvements in his game, lest he is confined to a bench role.

While none of these are easy fixes in his game, they are all essential pieces to Simons taking the leap from great to elite.

Area of improvement #1: Get to the line more often

As the de facto second option on offense for the Blazers, Simons had the ball in his hands a lot this season. He barely edged out Jerami Grant for usage on the team this year, which speaks to the confidence and trust that head coach Chauncey Billups and the rest of the coaching staff have in Simons.

For the most part, that trust was validated, as offense hasn’t been the problem for Portland this year. Although the injury bug has sapped some of the explosive potential of the offense, the Blazers rank 15th in net rating in the NBA. Their problems stem from the defensive end.

Per Cleaning the Glass, Simons ranked fifth on the team in efficiency differential, which speaks to his positive impact. If he wants to take it to the next level, however, Simons is going to need to take finishes like the one below and start adding found money to them:

With his agility, ability to finish with both hands, and quick instincts, Simons is already a skilled finisher at the rim. That hasn’t translated to free throw attempts, however, as he set a career-high with just less than three attempts per game.

Simply put, that’s not good enough to be a star in the NBA.

Look at the list at the names that lead the league in free-throw attempts and you see a pattern: Lillard ranks fifth amongst a who’s-who of current stars.

It’s a notable marker of going from a great scorer to one with game-bending potential when a player can consistently generate easy offense like this for themselves.

Simons is already a deadeye from the line, ranking 10th in the league in free-throw percentage. An uptick in his attempts would not only get him easier looks, but would represent his newfound ability to elevate an offense to a higher level all on his own.

Area of improvement #2: Secondary playmaking

Until Dame hangs up his shoes or decides to seek greener pastures outside of the Pacific Northwest, Simons’ role on the team will be the secondary creator.

While Lillard stirs the drink of the offense, something he does at an elite level, it’s up to Simons to either run the second unit’s offense and steady the ship or make plays off of a bent defense from Dame.

Part of this secondary playmaking is scoring, which Simons has no problem with right now. Where he needs to evolve, however, is his potency as a passer. With his quickness and burst to get into the lane, he has the tools to be a prolific assistant to the rest of the team. He just needs to put it all together.

When given the chance to handle the ball, Simons shows an adept understanding of timing, change of speed, and change of direction when picking defenses apart. Here, he’s able to force the Nets into a help rotation, opening up an easy look from the corner:

For Simons to take that next step toward stardom, he needs to be a more impactful creator for others. His four assists a game was a career-high, but it’s still a bit below the prowess of other secondary creators like Jaylen Brown, Jordan Poole, and Jamal Murray, to name a few.

If Simons can become a consistent threat to not only score but set up teammates in their preferred spots, he’ll be able to take the Blazers from a good offensive team to one that could one day rival the Denver Nuggets or Sacramento Kings.

Area of improvement #3: Pull-up 3-point percentage

This one might sound a bit perplexing at first, as it is somewhat of a nit-pick, but the idea that Simons needs to improve upon his pull-up shooting from deep is grounded in the reality of where he is now.

As a guard, Simons’ best tool in his offensive arsenal is his pull-up jumper. He’s able to go from ice cold to ludicrously hot in a matter of possessions, completely flipping games with his geometry-breaking shooting potential.

He had a handful of contests this year where he caught fire and mercilessly tortured defenders with his jumpers:

If Simons wants to be star, however, he’s a little off the mark. Among the 18 NBA players taking more than four pull-up threes a game, Simons ranks ninth. That’s a solid number at 35.5 percent, but if Simons wants to be an All-Star, he needs to get his efficiency up more towards Dame, who’s fifth in the league at 40.5 percent.

Going from a good pull-up shooter to a knockdown pull-up shooter will open up the rest of the floor for Simons and must be his most tangible pathway to stardom. If defenses have to go all out to fly around screens in fear of his scalding pull-up, Simons will have more space to get downhill, get more free-throw attempts, and find teammates more often in positions to score.

For these reasons, this is the most important swing skill that Simons can improve on to see immediate dividends.

Area of improvement #4: Defense, defense, defense

Honestly, this same skill could be assigned to every player on Portland’s roster outside of Matisse Thybulle. While some guys have solid defensive tools, the horrendous defensive issues that the Trail Blazers suffer through keep them from fielding any sort of team that can actually be competitive in the playoff picture.

Simons is still a young, somewhat undersized guard, especially for the off-guard position, but his defense is clearly the weakest part of his game. He doesn’t move well enough on that end, doesn’t move with enough purpose and focus, and can get lost on and off ball, which makes him a sieve that defenses can target more than others on the team:

Asking Simons to get better at all elements of defense, like footwork, timing, and instincts, is too ambitious. Instead, what Simons needs to focus on is improving at least one of these skills so that he isn’t a bottom-feeder defender.

If he could navigate screens better, force more live-ball turnovers, or be a more reliable switch defender, he could shore up at least a part of the Portland defense.

Whether he can do that, especially with the load he has to carry on offense, is up for debate. If Simons wants to be a star, however, it’s not a question of whether he can be a better defender.

For him to reach the ceiling of his game, Simons will need to take that end of the floor more seriously and establish himself as, at minimum, a competent NBA defender. Otherwise, stardom is out of the question.