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2018 Orlando Magic NBA Draft Preview: Anfernee Simons scaling up from high school

By Philip Rossman-Reich

SPRINGFIELD, MA - JANUARY 14: IMG Academy Ascenders guard Anfernee Simons (3) shoots the ball during the first half of the Spalding Hoophall Classic high school basketball game between the Vermont Academy Wildcats and the IMG Academy Post Grad Ascenders on January 14, 2018, at the Blake Arena in Springfield, MA .(Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
SPRINGFIELD, MA - JANUARY 14: IMG Academy Ascenders guard Anfernee Simons (3) shoots the ball during the first half of the Spalding Hoophall Classic high school basketball game between the Vermont Academy Wildcats and the IMG Academy Post Grad Ascenders on January 14, 2018, at the Blake Arena in Springfield, MA .(Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Anfernee Simons
SPRINGFIELD, MA – JANUARY 14: IMG Academy Ascenders guard Anfernee Simons (3) shoots the ball during the first half of the Spalding Hoophall Classic high school basketball game between the Vermont Academy Wildcats and the IMG Academy Post Grad Ascenders on January 14, 2018, at the Blake Arena in Springfield, MA .(Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Anfernee Simons took the unconventional route to the NBA, skipping college to jump straight to the NBA. Now the question is whether his talent can scale up.

Anfernee Simons will force you to watch grainy high school footage again. It has been a while since that was all the video anyone had of a player since the league kept high school students from joining the league without a gap year, presumably to go to college.

Simons will be one of the first players to jump straight from high school, graduating from Orlando’s Edgewater High School and then spending a “gap year” with IMG Academy. That still left him playing against a lot of high school players.

Still, that grainy footage is impressive. Impressive enough for him to get some first-round buzz. Simons is a player with lots of talent just looking for a stage to perform and play.

The Altamonte Springs-born guard originally committed to play for the Louisville Cardinals before the Rick Pitino scandal caused him to reconsider. He then opted to skip the whole college experiment altogether.

Simons has plenty of athleticism to spare. It is probably what he used most to beat opponents in his gap year. But that would be selling him short too. He is skilled on that end, able to attack the basket and pull up for shots quickly. He can also hit 3-pointers as a spot-up shooter. Albeit at the high school level.

If anything, not going to college is the only thing hurting Simons here. Everything else is in place for him to be an intriguing prospect. No one knows if that ability will scale up.

It feels like Simons’ game is a tug of a whole bunch of contradictions. He has the great positional versatility teams love in the modern NBA, but may be short on the point guard skills needed to play his most effective position. Simons has NBA-level athleticism but he may not have developed the other skills necessary to support that athleticism.

It is all a bundle of potential with an unknown ceiling with Simons. Which is probably why his draft range seems to be all over the place.