Ranking the 10 Blazers who need to play the most minutes the rest of this season

Which young players should get the most run down the stretch and where do the vets fit in?

Jabari Walker, Portland Trail Blazers
Jabari Walker, Portland Trail Blazers | Alika Jenner/GettyImages
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4. Anfernee Simons

Simons has established himself as a nightly 20- to 25-point-per-game scorer in the NBA. He's missed significant time this season, only playing in 29 games, but he's been as advertised his first year as Portland's go-to offensive option.

Ant is averaging 23.4 ppg and is connecting on 38.8 percent of his 8.8 threes. His 28.8 usage rate is a career-high and he's doing more with the ball in his hands, averaging a career-high 4.2 free-throw attempts (he's never averaged more than 3) and shooting a career-high 90.9 percent when he gets there (he's never shot above 90).

But Simons is still only 24 and has missed 23 games in a season meant to see him develop into the Blazers' best player. And though he's averaging 5.3 assists (another career high), more practice as a facilitator would only grow his game further as a combo guard rather than a pure scorer.

Even if he's already entrenched as one of Portland's stars, Simons needs all the playing time he can get, assuming he can stay healthy.

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