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Parent network SBNation recently polled Portland Trail Blazers faithful and other NBA fans on their loyalties to starting guard Anfernee Simons, and whether trading the volume scorer would be expedient to the franchise or not. The people have spoken and the results are here.
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60 percent of all readers who voted were content with trading Simons for the right price — or any price at that — as compared to 40 percent who fell on a spectrum of loyalty toward the budding wing.
Simons has had an up-and-down season despite boasting career-high numbers of 22.2 points and 4.0 assists per game on 43.8 percent shooting from the field. Simons has been trigger happy from beyond the arc, where he attempts 10 3-pointers per game, connecting on 37.5 percent of those triples.
In spite of borderline all-star numbers, Simons has had moments in games where he has gotten very comfortable with settling for 3-pointers. He also bears culpability along with the rest of his teammates for their sloppy turnovers on the offensive end.
Defensively, he, Damian Lillard and Josh Hart comprise a 1-2-3 lineup that often times proves to be too undersized to reach an elite defensive ceiling. His defensive shortcomings have been overshadowed by his late-game heroics and liability to become a flamethrower at any given moment.
In order for Portland to take another step toward becoming a true championship contender, Simons, as well as Jusuf Nurkic are widely looked at as the two players with the most value to flip for a Jerami Grant-esque two-way player that can further revitalize the team on both ends while adding length. This has been alluded to heavily in recent comment boards.
Evidently, the majority of readers would like to see another upgrade to the roster at Simons’ expense. Therefore, let us know in the comments which players around the league you’d like to see adorn the red, black and white in a swap for Ant-man.
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