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BOSTON — Evan Turner could predict where Anfernee Simons would be during each halftime early in his Portland Trail Blazers tenure. No matter what had happened over the first two quarters of a game, Turner would watch Simons walk up to Damian Lillard’s locker and receive a breakdown of the action. Simons would stand near Lillard’s seat and receive a high-level basketball education from the All-Star point guard.
“And this is every halftime,” Turner said. “And he would just go up to Dame and be like, ‘What did you see?’ And Dame would be coaching him. And then, he would just go sit right back down. He wouldn’t make a peep.”
The moments of coaching weren’t restricted to halftime. Sometimes, after checking out of a game, Lillard would call Simons over from the end of the bench to explain his thought process about what had just happened on the court. Or, during a timeout, Lillard would approach Simons for another impromptu lesson. Recognizing his style mirrored Lillard’s at least to some extent, Simons considered Portland an ideal place to grow at that stage of his career. He could pick Lillard’s brain constantly. Lillard’s openness and willingness to help out a teenager, who Portland drafted out of high school in 2018 (24th overall), gave Simons an unusual opportunity to learn from one of the NBA’s best guards.
Turner thought both sides of the relationship were unique. Not many players of Lillard’s stature would have gone to such lengths to mentor a young teammate, especially one who played the same position. Not many players Simons’ age would have stayed so committed to the process of growth. Simons didn’t let a lack of minutes early in his career ruin his spirit. No matter how limited his role, he continued to prepare for when his time would come.
“I’m talking about even when it wasn’t cute,” Turner said. “You see rookies do that the first four games and (decide), ‘F–k it, I’m not playing.’ I’m talking about every game for three years he would go stand in (front of) his locker. He ain’t played. He ain’t seen the court.”
Regardless, Simons continued to work on furthering his basketball IQ. Turner hasn’t forgotten the diligence his younger teammate showed throughout what could have been a frustrating period of his career. On the practice court, Turner said, Simons’ gifts shone through long before he received a consistent chance to play. Turner called Simons an unreal talent. Still, it was Simons’ mentality throughout his formative NBA years that Turner harped on most while detailing why he’s so bullish about the guard’s chances of success in Boston.
“He’ll be the right fit because who he is naturally is a learner,” Turner said. “He is a humble individual. He’s open to learning, and, most importantly, he wants to win.”
Though Simons acknowledges he needs to develop what he calls a “winning player stigma” in Boston, the way he was raised should help him embrace that challenge. Long before he developed into a first-round pick and eventually the Blazers’ leading scorer, Simons learned to soak in wisdom from those around him.
His parents, Charles and Tameka, laugh about it now, but they didn’t always see eye-to-eye on how to treat their son during his youth basketball games. When Anfernee didn’t get back on defense, or when he would force things on offense, his father — also his coach — would sub him out of the game.
“My wife would sit (across the court),” Charles remembered. “She would text me: Put him back in the game.”
Charles would refuse. During a recent phone call, he described his coaching style as tough to the point that it was sometimes unfair. Whether in public or private, he didn’t hesitate to give Anfernee a piece of his mind. Sometimes, Charles would cuss out Anfernee from the sidelines. Other times, Charles would limit Anfernee’s playing time. When Charles got too over-the-top, Tameka would step in to let him know he was being too hard on his son and he needed to take it easier. Anfernee laughed while saying his mom was his savior in such situations.
“My dad was on 10,” Anfernee said. “On my ass every day. It started at a young age, too. I was like 6 — on my ass.”
“As a kid, it probably was unreasonable,” acknowledged Charles. “But I just felt like I needed to coach him tough so that he could thrive in tough environments and tough cultures.”
The lessons weren’t always fun to experience at the time, but Simons believes they helped prepare him for any type of coaching. So, when Joe Mazzulla started throwing verbal jabs about his defense, Simons welcomed them. It didn’t take him long to realize Mazzulla can express himself harshly.
“Get a f–ing stop,” he will yell at Simons.
Or, “Box the f–k out.”
Such hard coaching would bother some players. Simons said he appreciates it. It helped that he and Mazzulla quickly developed a relationship off the court, but Simons long ago learned how to handle tough coaching. The abrasive language on the court didn’t stop Simons from focusing on Mazzulla’s intended messages.
“(My father) just taught me how to handle being coached,” Anfernee said, “and I don’t even think it was necessarily intentional. It might’ve been, but he was just so hard on me and wanted the best out of me. So, I naturally just was able to take coaching from everybody else because, naturally, you’re going to take everything your father says to heart, you know what I mean? So, I started to realize what he was saying and not how he was saying it. So, that was the easiest transition for me coming into being coached by somebody that isn’t my father. They just wanted the best for me. And I know Joe wants the best for me. So, it’s easy to take that criticism and just move on and fix it.”
It’s no coincidence Mazzulla has been hardest on Simons’ defense. His credentials on offense speak for themselves. Twice eclipsing 20 points per game in a season, he has averaged more than three made 3-pointers per game for four consecutive seasons. Considering his high volume of attempts, his career 3-point percentage (38.1 percent) sparkles — and it might actually undersell what the Celtics should expect from him. He has hit 41.4 percent of catch-and-shoot 3-point opportunities since entering the league; if he takes more of those because of the better talent around him in Boston, his accuracy could spike up. He believes the attention opponents put on some of his new teammates, including Jaylen Brown, should free him for some easier looks.
It’s on defense where Simons struggled in Portland. Some stats, such as the highly regarded Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM), have regularly ranked him as one of the NBA’s worst defenders. According to Simons, Mazzulla has told him that he’s not as bad as people believe he is. Still, Mazzulla has let his new guard hear about his mistakes on that end of the court. In a new environment rich with defensive tradition, the Celtics are hopeful Simons will commit fully to the established culture. They certainly intend to lead him in that direction. When Simons arrived in Boston over the offseason, he said the team first worked with him on the technical aspects of defense, making that type of work a big part of his development plan over his first four weeks in town. Simons said he had never learned some of the ways the Celtics taught him to improve his defensive playmaking. He believes his new situation will help him take zero possessions off, as the Celtics have pushed him to do.
“It’s really just that attention to detail and being present every single possession,” Simons said. “I think that’s where it starts. When you’re in a situation where you’re the number one option, you get that leeway of getting some possessions off. And a lot of heavy lifting was on me on offense at that time, so they understood that I was going to have to sometimes take some possessions off on the other end just to have enough energy for (late in) the game. … So, that created the natural, you could say, bad habits in a way. And, so, I was excited about coming here because of the different types of players that can do so many things, and now I can be able to focus on both ends just as much and still be effective. … My life is going to be much easier just on the offensive end. And, so, it’s going to help me defensively just to be knowing that we got all the guys, I can be locked in on both sides of the court, every single possession.”
On an expiring contract, Simons has urgency to show he can defend at a higher level. He seems to have bought into that vision. After joining the Celtics, he acknowledged he left himself open to criticism because the Blazers didn’t win many games with him as their top option. In Boston, he said, he wants to contribute to winning “no matter what that looks like.” He believes his new situation will help.
“I knew that I was going to get pushed in ways I’ve never been pushed and maybe play a different way that I’ve never played in my career, where I was always the guy making every single play, and it was always dependent on me, especially the last couple years,” Simons said. “And, so, now we got a whole bunch of veteran players that know how to play and know how to move the ball and know how to just play basketball a little bit more. And, so, that’s what I was excited about — being a part of that.”
Six years after they were last teammates, Turner still can’t get over the maturity Simons showed while he was working toward minutes in Portland. Turner would try to rattle Simons at practices, just to test him. But no matter what Turner tried, he couldn’t seem to throw off his young teammate. Nothing kills his confidence, Turner thought. Nothing bothers him. Simons didn’t carry himself like a normal teenager. Though he encountered sporadic playing time behind Lillard and CJ McCollum, Simons never let the lack of minutes impact the way he approached his work. Sometimes, Turner would even joke with Simons about how he must be sick of going through the same old drills when they weren’t leading to more opportunities on the court.
“I’m like, bro, I know you tired of shooting the same jumpers,” Turner said.
Turner thought other players with Simons’ natural gifts would have quit working when facing a blocked path to playing time. Simons found ways to keep growing. Partly by listening to Lillard, Simons found valuable lessons in many of the games he didn’t play. Among other pointers, Lillard would show Simons how to utilize a first-quarter play to set up opportunities in the fourth quarter. Even early in games, Lillard was always thinking about how to thrive in crunchtime.
“That was big for me, to see somebody that’s in the heat of the moment thinking about me,” Simons said. “You know what I mean? Thinking about a person that’s not getting in the game, might be in dress clothes, not even playing.”
Still, Simons was raised to stay focused on his opportunity.
“You’re going to get to where you need to get to, and you’re going to be that much more prepared for your opportunity when it does come,” Simons’ father would tell him. “But if you stop working and you stop believing in your ability, then you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot.”
“That’s all I kept telling him,” said Charles. “Me and his mom kept telling him, just remember those things. Because lessons, those types of lessons, are always going to prepare you to move forward in life, and this was going to propel him to move forward in that situation.”
The challenge won’t be the same in Boston. Simons is established now. Whether he starts or comes off the bench — he said he just wants to contribute to winning — he figures to play a big role for the Celtics. They want him to be himself, the aggressive scorer he has been, with an increased commitment to the dirtier parts of the game. Before finishing the preseason with 14 points (4-of-13 shooting) over 32 minutes played of a 110-108 win against the Raptors, he totaled 39 points on 12-of-25 shooting (made 8 of 16 3-pointers) over his first two preseason performances.
“He’s just got to be a complete player,” said Mazzulla. “He has to have an understanding of the physicality that’s needed on every single possession on both ends of the floor. That’s the only thing I care about. It’s got to be physical. He’s got to box out. He has to be able to defend, and everything else will take care of itself. “
Mazzulla said Simons arrived in Boston with an open mind and a willingness to discover how he fits in. With the Celtics, it’s clear Simons sees an opportunity to remodel himself. His father wants him to approach this chance the same way he did in Portland.
“To be a sponge,” Charles said. “To be himself, but to learn. I always tell him that when you stop learning, just retire. Just be open-minded because it’s going to help you. It’s going to put more tools in your tool bag that you can use. That’s a big thing.
“And whatever they ask you to do, just do it.”
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Jay King is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Boston Celtics. He previously covered the team for MassLive for five years. He also co-hosts the “Anything Is Poddable” podcast. Follow Jay on Twitter @byjayking
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