When the Boston Celtics landed Anfernee Simons as part of the deal that sent Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers, it was clear the front office had swapped elite defense for an offensive spark.
Simons is a proven three-level scorer in the NBA. However, his limited defense is a cause for concern. The messaging out of Boston’s training camp over the last week has been that Simons is working on becoming a better defender and should take a leap in the upcoming season.
However, when speaking to the media on Monday, Oct. 6, head coach Joe Mazzulla stressed the importance of finding a balance with Simons’ overall approach.
“Yeah, it’s a balance, right?” Mazzulla said. “He’s proven he can play at a high level. He can score at a high level. He’s a very talented player. At the same time, we kind of need him to be the best version of himself. Make the guys around him better. So, it’s a balance. He’s coming with an open mind, he’s coming with a work ethic and an understanding of, ‘Where can I fit in?’ So, we just have to make sure, one, we don’t take away his aggressiveness, at the same time, how can we make everybody around each other better?”
Simons has a big opportunity with Boston this season. If he can prove himself as a viable member of the roster, he could become part of the franchise’s next contending roster.
The Celtics Will Bring Out Simons’ Best Defense
During a recent interview with Bobby Manning of CLNS Media , Celtics assistant coach Ross McMains detailed the messaging and focus of Simons’ work this summer, with defense being a primary focus.
“First, be yourself and give us every bit of your strengths that we have,” McMains told Manning. “You can fill it up as a scorer. You can fill it up as a distributor, and then also building his defensive identity and a lot of that’s within him, and this environment is going to bring that out of him and he’s attacked it from day one in terms of his defensive mentality.”
Simons is never going to be a defensive anchor. However, he can become a league-average defender if he continues to put the work in and develop his overall understanding of Boston’s schemes and on-court language. He has all the tools to become a reliable defensive presence on the perimeter, especially with a team that has built its success with a defense-first mentality in recent years.
Simons Is Learning The Celtics System
During the same interview with McMains, he explained how Simons is slowly adjusting to Boston’s way of doing things.
“He’s coming into this situation right here where the standards are really high,” McMains said. “…I just think that environment speaks to what you have to be and what you have to do before you even step on the floor, and I think that’s going to bring the best out of him in that regard, let alone him actually working to improve in that area. So yeah, I think the effort and the application is the baseline, but then on top of that, now it’s applying his IQ to it, applying his learning of our system to it and continuing to improve in those different areas.”
Simons is in the final year of his current contract. A big season for the Celtics , where he disproves some of the narratives surrounding his defense, could be highly beneficial for him. After all, if he emerges as a high-level scorer and average defender, he will likely draw interest from multiple teams around the NBA . That is, if the Celtics don’t sign him to an extension, of course.
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