Anfernee Simons #4 of the Boston Celtics
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Anfernee Simons #4 of the Boston Celtics
Friday night marked another win for the Celtics, who toppled the Raptors in Boston, as well as another game in which Anfernee Simons showed how nicely he is acclimating to the sixth man’s role on this team. Simons, who had been a starter for the last three years of his career, went for 15 points and five assists, and made three of his four 3-pointers–running his season percentage to 40.9%.
Simons is 27-for-47 from the arc in his last six games, a 57.4% clip, and he is now averaging 13.6 points off the bench, No. 5 in the NBA among players with at least 20 bench games. He has a bench plus/minus of 4.2, which is seventh in the league.
It’s because of his ability to adjust to his new role that the Celtics should certainly want to keep Simons on the roster more and more. But Boston is still about $12 million over the luxury-tax threshold, and has sought ways to drop below that number and get itself out of the penalties that come with being a repeat taxpayer. Simons has a salary of $27.7 million this season, and offloading that would put the Celtics comfortably out of the way of the tax.
Anfernee Simons: ‘Just Part of the NBA’
Thus, Simons continues to be at the forefront of Celtics trade chatter. He has forged a very useful role with the team, but he remains the quickest path to long-term payroll flexibility, and the Celtics value that. The fact that he has performed well, on both ends, in his current role means Simons has increased his value–and kept himself in trade talks.
But, he said, he is accustomed to that, he said. Simons has been a trade speculation piece since he signed his first big contract in Portland.
“Man, it’s the NBA,” Simons said on Friday. “You know what I mean? I am in trade rumors since my third year, Every other week it’s something new. It’s just a part of the NBA, and you’ve just gotta be where your feet are.”
Celtics Staying Focused on the Job at Hand
The Celtics, for their part, have found they do not much need to protect Simons from outside trade talk. Coach Joe Mazzulla was asked about insulating Simons from rumors, and Mazzulla said that Simons simply focuses on doing his job and improving.
“We’re not looking to do anything other than to do our job every single day. We can’t control anything except that. Since Day One, he’s done a great job of controlling what he can control, that’s the most important thing. Every night, he gets better and better,” Mazzulla said.
“The most important thing is to do your job and he takes a ton of pride in that and competing at a high level. I love the role that he’s in because he comes in and just is another guy that can play-make for us, another guy that can score for us. But again, I like the fact that he takes pride in his defense. He wants to get better at it.”