Portland Trail Blazers: Anfernee Simons’ career taking a familiar track
Rob Ryan
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A familiar track
Stories recently came out regarding a potential deadline trade the Trail Blazers considered for Orlando’s Aaron Gordon. Highly coveted, Gordon is an athletic forward who would have fit the prototype front-court player the Blazers lacked in recent years. The trade didn’t happen because Orlando insisted on including Anfernee Simons as part of the deal.
After reading these rumors, it got me thinking about Olshey’s attachment to Anfernee Simons. He’s a player whose stats didn’t shout out anything special over his first two seasons. Despite an increase in shooting percentages hasn’t exactly jumped out this season either.
Due to playing behind Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace, and Brian Grant, O’Neal didn’t get enough on-court time to showcase his talents. Had Jermaine begun his career as a starter on a bad team, he probably would have been able to show his potential much sooner. The Portland Trail Blazers coach back then, Mike Dunleavy, said years later that he was firmly against trading O’Neal in the summer of 2000.
Jermaine, Part 2
It’s tempting to imagine what could have been if Jermaine O’neal had stayed with the organization long enough to take over for a declining Sabonis. A frontcourt duo of Rasheed Wallace and O’Neal could have locked down the power positions for a decade.
Olshey may be holding onto Simons with the thought that the guard has the potential to be heir to Damian Lillard, in the same way, O’Neal could have been for Arvydas Sabonis? Maybe Olshey is trying not to make the same mistake Bob Whitsitt did by trading Jermaine O’Neal too early in his career?
Granted, Lillard and Sabonis are vastly different players at different points in their careers when these events took place. Simons is nearly ten years younger than Lillard. Olshey likely sees Simons as a prominent backup guard in a Lou Williams type-role. Then a 25 or 26-year-old Simons can transition to taking over for a 35/36-year-old Damian Lillard?
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Do you think Simons has the potential to eventually become an NBA star? Let us know in the comments below or on social media.