Anfernee Simons has only played 141 minutes in the NBA so far, but anticipation for his second season is incredibly high among fans and the Portland Trail Blazers organization. A playoff-altering performance in last year’s Game 82, coupled with a short yet impactful Summer League outing, have brought unwavering confidence to most of Rip City.
As a result of several offseason transactions, Simons should assume the backup point guard spot in place of Seth Curry. The rest of the second unit is unknown due to the roster overhaul: Nine of Portland’s 15 players weren’t on the team at the start of last season.
Head coach Terry Stotts will undoubtedly experiment with many lineup variations during the first few months. If Simons is the only guaranteed reserve guard, a specific combination of players surrounding him could supplement the sophomore’s best attribute: scoring.
The obvious play style to pair a scorer with is a distributor. In today’s NBA, the distributor doesn’t have to be the point guard, nor the guy bringing the ball up the court.
Stotts utilized his point-forward, Evan Turner, in the second unit alongside CJ McCollum last year. McCollum is a score-first guard who’s shown flashes of playmaking skill but often falls victim to tunnel vision. Turner enabled McCollum to play off the ball like he does with the starters.
When McCollum ran the offense, his and the team’s scoring stats depressed. He averaged nearly 16 fewer points (on just four fewer attempts) per 100 possessions with Turner and Damian Lillard on the bench versus only Lillard on the bench. His shooting percentage decreased as a result of having to create offense alone. Opposing defenders focused solely on the crafty guard because his teammates weren’t very threatening on the perimeter, making those unassisted buckets even tougher to come by.
If an experienced McCollum struggled to facilitate the second unit’s offense by himself, Simons would likely encounter the same troubles. Even though Turner is gone, surrounding Simons with players who eliminate the pressure of playmaking shouldn’t be too difficult.
First and foremost, if Stotts staggers the starting backcourt, Simons has McCollum playing alongside him. Both guards can open up opportunities for one another and share the role of distributor. Filling the lineup out with two shooters and a big man capable of running pick and rolls allows Portland to use the starters’ offense with the reserves. Offensive continuity for any five-man iteration benefits a roster filled with new and young faces.
If Stotts doesn’t stagger Lillard and McCollum, another way to relieve pressure on Simons is to pair him with Pau Gasol and Mario Hezonja. Both have experience as facilitators and can give the 20-year-old better looks or a few possessions off.
Gasol and Simons form an unorthodox but potentially effective pick-and-roll duo. Albeit slowly, the veteran center can roll to the rim alongside Simons and act as a release valve if the defense collapses on the guard. When the pass gets to Gasol, he has the wherewithal to find the open teammate or finish at the rim himself.
Gasol’s wide frame and experience as a screener also enable him to hand the ball off and generate enough space for Simons to knock down a mildly contested jumper. The 20-year-old has already shown an ability to hit those shots off the dribble — running around a screen and taking no dribbles is less of a hassle.
Hezonja can assume Turner’s point-forward role and run the offense every couple of possessions. He started at point guard for the New York Knicks in the final games of last season and produced flashy — but remarkably erratic — numbers.
In his brief time as a point-forward, Hezonja usually resorted to pick and rolls to initiate the offense. According to NBA.com, he had 152 pick-and-roll possessions and ranked in the 15th percentile for points per possession in 2018-19. The year prior, he ranked in the 66th percentile on 87 such possessions.
His best attribute as a pick-and-roll ball-handler is providing the roll man with good opportunities. At 6’8”, Hezonja can see over the defense and find the screener rolling to the hoop. The screener of Hezonja’s pick and rolls last season scored 1.15 PPP, which ranks in the 76th percentile.
Gasol, potentially the other half of Hezonja’s pick and rolls, doesn’t score well as the roll man. However, the three players surrounding he and Hezonja can all be knock-down shooters. Any combination of Simons, McCollum, Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver spreads the floor for pick-and-roll actions and provides a backup plan if no easy baskets appear.
Hezonja and Gasol don’t have to run pick and rolls every few possessions to be impactful. Their ability to move the ball around and get it in the hands of more capable offensive players should benefit the Blazers’ bench (and Simons).
One way or another, a second distributor should join Simons in the second unit. McCollum’s numbers alongside the reserves improved when Turner was on the floor last year, and the same may be the case for the second-year guard.