I’ll start by saying I’m a big Anfernee Simons fan, so I definitely am biased towards holding him on my fantasy team, but I’m curious how everyone else in points leagues are feeling about him? He gotta get traded? Or hold? Especially with Portland being so low seeded.

Shot 13/21 for 61.9% and 7/11 from 3 for 63.6%

Also went 4/6 from the free throw line.

ROY

An elite shooter and athlete who can score from anywhere on the floor and who is effective as both an off-ball player and primary ball-handler while only being 23 years old and is under contract for multiple seasons.

If Ant were to be traded by himself, no other Blazers players or picks traded with him, what kind of return would he net? What player(s) and/or pick(s) would the Blazers realistically get from him alone?

Let me start by saying that I understand that we are guard-heavy, Anfernee is no longer on a rookie contract so he's one of our more tradable assets, especially if a good young wing or center is available for him. I'm cherry-picking stats a bit here but since the NBA introduced the dunk contest Brent Barry is the only player to win who also has a higher career 3pt percentage than Anfernee. He has a relatively unique skillset being so athletic while also being a sharpshooter. If he's ever able to show that he has vision and/or becomes a solid defender, his impact and value will skyrocket. At only 24 his upside is just too great for us to trade him just because we have too many guards. I don't think the majority of Blazer fans think this way but for the ones who do, it makes no sense, especially if we're committing to a rebuild.

Anfernee Simons

I feel like Poole and Simons are very similar players in an eerily similar situation this year.

They're both up and coming 23 year old combo guards that are about to see a big usage bump coming out of the shadow of an elite older guard.

Anfernee averaged 21.1/2.6/4.1 on .447/.377/.894 splits 2.1 TOV
Poole averaged 20.4/2.7/4.5 on .430/.336/.870 splits 3.1 TOV

Poole is 23 ADP on ESPN, Anfernee is 94.

I would take Poole higher because he's better at drawing FTs and I think he'll get an extra boost leaving kind of a toxic situation on the Warriors with draymond, but idk if he's 70 spots higher.

January Stats in 30mpg 16.9ppg, 4.4apg, 4rpg, 0spg 34/38/88 splits

December Stats in 34.9mpg 28ppg, 5.4apg, 3.2rpg, 0.8spg 46/40/92 splits

Now I know the drop off in January is due to the blazers getting blown out in what felt like every single game, but I expect that to happen more throughout the season because the blazers are complete ass.

I just bought low on him and hoping he can replicate that December run since those shooting splits definitely look sustainable. How are other Simons owners viewing him right now? Do we expect him to revert back to his December numbers or should we expect something more in the middle?

With Ayton and Grant back as well as Scoot starting to get comfortable, hoping that these boys can actually keep it a close game to play full mins each game

For anyone unfamiliar EPM is generally considered the best all-in-one advanced stat. Obviously any stat like this(especially defensive ones) have to be taken with a grain of salt, but Ant's ability to always end up at the very very bottom of these lists is wild.

I made a post early in the year about the defensive on/offs for our main guys(Ant was by far the worst) and the main criticism there was Ant had come back for a particularly difficult part of the season, which is true. Well a month later I go to check where Trae Young is sitting only to find D-EPM has Simons as the absolute worst defender in the league.

Watching games it has felt like he's made real effort in on ball defense, but maybe my eye just isn't catching all the mistakes he's making.

For anyone curious Toumani Camara is our best rated defender by EPM. He's around the 85th or 90th percentile