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

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.