Whether or not Anfernee Simons, acquired from the Blazers in the cap-dump trade that sent Jrue Holiday to Portland after two seasons in Boston, will ever actually put on a Celtics jersey remains up in the air.
By now, it feels clear that Brad Stevens and the Celtics would almost prefer to move on from Simons in the name of financial flexibility. There’s almost a weekly scoop from an insider or two reminding you that Simons is still available.
“I don’t know what the Celtics are thinking, but other than Jaylen Brown, there’s not a better scorer than Simons on that roster,” the exec told Bulpett. “I bet you he’s their leading scorer. Even with Jaylen. He’s going to have the ball a lot, and that dude can really score. That offense is going to have to change to accommodate him, and, on the last year of his contract, he’s going to let it fly.”
The exec went on to call Simons a “bucket,” and noted that Simons will likely be even better given the competitive drop-off moving from the West to the East.
Buddy, save some hot takes for the rest of us.
Anfernee Simons #1 of the Portland Trail Blazers plays against the Detroit Pistons.
A seven-year NBA veteran, Simons is making his way to Boston on the heels of a 2024-25 season where he averaged 19.3 points per game, and shot at least 42 percent from the field for the fourth straight season. Simons has also averaged at least eight three-point attempts per game for the last three seasons, seemingly making him a definite fit for what Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla wants and expects out of his team at the offensive end of the court.
But the problem for Simons is that his defensive game is well below the standard that Mazzulla and the Celtics demand out of their backcourt (even if one accepts that not every player you bring in can be Marcus Smart or Jrue Holiday). And that Simons is likely to be a sixth man for Boston, with Derrick White and Payton Pritchard expected to be Boston’s starters from the 1 and 2 in 2025-26.
In addition to the obvious luxury tax benefits, those two things are ultimately the biggest reasons why the C’s have an interest in trading Simons, who is on an expiring contract valued at over $27 million, before the end of the offseason.
“We have most of our first-round picks still other than the ’29 one, we have a lot of second [round picks] so we have flexibility there,” Stevens said earlier this summer. “We don’t want to take away our chance to use those to become the best that we could be over the next few years just to make a move to help save money. I think that has been very clearly stated to me.”
In other words, as the Green continue to let it be known that Simons is available for the right price, the Celtics’ best hope may actually be trying to pump-and-dump Simons onto a new team at the deadline.
… Though they surely wouldn’t mind seeing that executive’s vision of Simons become reality for Mazzulla and the C’s in 2025-26.
