Portland Trail Blazers fans know Anfernee Simons is an extremely valuable offensive weapon. With his microwave scoring ability, he's singlehandedly won Portland games over the past seven seasons. He's also emerged as one of the more talented combo guards in the league, hovering around 20 points and five assists per game the past three seasons. The defense-heavy Blazers will miss Simons' offensive skill set this upcoming season.
Portland's loss will undoubtedly be Boston's gain on the offensive end, which Celtics president Brad Stevens recently touched on during media day.
"He is an electric scorer. He's an outstanding shooter," Stevens said. "He is a guy that teams will legitimately be thinking about when they enter the game. That's a scouting report asterisk guy. You have to know him inside and out because he's liable to go off."
"We’re really excited about having him in our program," Stevens added.
The Celtics shouldn't be the only ones excited about this partnership, as Simons is also set to benefit from their championship culture and style of play under head coach Joe Mazzulla.
Celtics are a perfect fit for Anfernee Simons
The Celtics implement "Mazzulla Ball" as a team that heavily relies on floor spacing and a high volume of shots from beyond the arc. They led the league in three-point attempts the past two seasons, and it wasn't particularly close last year. The Celtics connected on 17.8 of their 48.2 three-point attempts per game, outpacing the second-ranked Warriors (42.4 attempts) by a wide margin.
That's a dream fit on the offensive end for Simons, who, as Stevens just noted, is an elite shooter. Ant has shot 38.1% from beyond the arc throughout his seven-year career. His efficiency hasn't dipped despite a significant increase in attempts, either, averaging around nine three-point attempts per game in the past three seasons.
We know Simons and Mazzulla are an ideal fit; however, questions remain regarding how Simons fits into the Celtics' overall roster construction and long-term plans.
But will Simons actually stay in Boston?
Simons is on an expiring $27.7 million contract. The Celtics already have established backcourt pieces between Derrick White and Payton Pritchard. They also moved Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis for financial reasons, making it seem that Simons was more of a stepping stone to reshape their roster rather than the final piece to that puzzle.
Brian Robb of MassLive recently noted that whether the Celtics ultimately will move Simons depends on the trade market for their skilled but expiring guard.
"It’s going to be based largely on his trade market around the league, in my opinion. The guard spot is very deep around the league and there simply aren’t a lot of teams in the market for a guy making [$27.7] million that wouldn’t start for most teams," Robb writes. "That could change if certain injuries hit but even then, the finances would need to make sense for Boston to make a deal... They aren’t going to want to take on unwanted long-term money in any deal for Simons and instead ideally would be cutting salary."
Boston wants to trade Simons before committing to him long term, yet other teams don't want to sacrifice valuable assets because of that expiring contract. Because of that, the Celtics could have difficulty finding anything significant enough in value for their newest offensive weapon.
With the season less than a month away, it's increasingly likely that Simons will remain in Boston. The good news for him is that Jayson Tatum is already showing impressive progress in his Achilles rehab, and the Eastern Conference is wide open for the taking. Simons may finally have that opportunity to win that he's always wanted.