{"id":84744,"date":"2024-07-05T12:04:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T16:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=84744"},"modified":"2024-07-05T12:04:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T16:04:57","slug":"nba-rumors-blazers-to-trade-former-first-round-pick-anfernee-simons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/05\/nba-rumors-blazers-to-trade-former-first-round-pick-anfernee-simons\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Rumors: Blazers to Trade Former First Round Pick?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Portland Trail Blazers guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/simonan01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anfernee Simons<\/a>\u2019s \u201cstatus is worth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rosegardenreport.com\/p\/trail-blazers-waiting-out-slow-developing?utm_content=buffere2227&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">keeping an eye on<\/a>,\u201d per The Rose Garden Report\u2019s Sean Highkin.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cOn draft night, Cronin said the Blazers are \u2018committed\u2019 to building around Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, and didn\u2019t mention Simons\u2019 name. Simons also appears open to a move\u2014at his end-of-season exit interview in April, he said he wants \u2018the opportunity to win,\u2019 which is very plainly not where the Blazers are right now or will be in the next few years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As Highkin notes, one of the primary factors in whether the Blazers are willing to move Simons could be his desire to play for a winning team.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Anfernee Simons&#8217; name was never mentioned in this interview.<\/p>\n<p>One year after Dame handed him the keys to this team, Cronin took them away.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s next for Anfernee? <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KYVxVfWUlR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/KYVxVfWUlR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jabari Walker\u2019s Revenge (@OSportsU) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OSportsU\/status\/1806843176503898404?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Simons\u2019 comments didn\u2019t necessarily mean he would be looking for a different team if Portland continued to be uncompetitive. Indeed, the 25-year-old sounds like he wants the Trail Blazers to turn it around:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don&#8217;t want to have another year like this,\u201d Simons says. \u201cMy sixth year is done now, going into year seven, I want to have the opportunity to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Anfernee Simons is tired of losing<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don&#8217;t want to have another year like this. My sixth year is done now, going into year seven, I want to have the opportunity to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(Via <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/highkin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@highkin<\/a> ) <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aYw31TM9X9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/aYw31TM9X9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDunkCentral\/status\/1780024825408319782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, with the reality that Portland is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/30\/2024-nba-off-season-preview-whats-next-for-the-trail-blazers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">still in rebuild mode<\/a>, their timelines appear to be diverging. If that\u2019s the case, it makes sense for both sides to consider a separation.<\/p>\n<h2>Blazers to Trade Anfernee Simons?<\/h2>\n<p>From a transactional perspective, Simons\u2019s combination of age and ability could fetch at least a first round pick. Selected 24th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft, Simons has outplayed his draft position, averaging 20.2 points and 4.4 assists per game over the past three seasons. In that time, he\u2019s also shot 44.0 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from 3.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Best Of Anfernee Simons \ud83d\udd25 23-24 Midseason Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k6hZlBZA9r4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>At 6-foot-3 and 181 pounds, Simons is a slithery combo guard whose 3-point touch screams \u2018star.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>However, Simons has at least one big problem. He can\u2019t stay healthy.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past three seasons, the IMG product has missed 81 games. Put another way, since 2021-22, he\u2019s missed about a season\u2019s worth of games. His inability to stay on the court is a problem in and of itself as it\u2019s limited his development. However, he\u2019s made it all but impossible for the Blazers to be the winning team he\u2019s looking for. To that point, Portland is just 18-63 without Simons since 2021-22, but 63-102 with him.<\/p>\n<p>Another issue for Simons is that teams are tiptoeing around high-priced players, concerned about how the most recent CBA will restrict their options from there on out. Making $53.6 million over the next two seasons, playoff contenders will have to weight the cost-benefit of a smallish, injury-prone guard with defensive concerns and a tendency to go hot and cold on offense. For all of Simons\u2019 potential to be great, teams likely need to see more from him to make that investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons\u2019s \u201cstatus is worth keeping an eye on,\u201d per The Rose Garden Report\u2019s Sean Highkin. \u201cOn draft night, Cronin said the Blazers are \u2018committed\u2019 to building around Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, and didn\u2019t mention Simons\u2019 name. Simons also appears open to a move\u2014at his end-of-season exit interview in April, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":84777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1608,62,3,4721],"tags":[1559,4557,4774],"class_list":["post-84744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trailblazers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-anfernee-simons","tag-nba-offseason","tag-rumors"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}