Orlando Magic Daily
Fansided

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) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next

The Bad

Of course, all that he does well comes with the huge asterisk of doing it against high school competition. The NCAA and most European leagues would have offered much more competition and a better measure of where Simons is as a player.

A lot of casual fans like to claim European players are shrouded in mystery because they are unfamiliar with the competition. High profile busts have people shying away from a player like Luka Doncic. And European teams tend not to play their young players, even if they are more talented. The mystery then is a lack of playing time typically.

But those players likely have much more reliable tape and analysis for scouts than in Simons’ games. It has been a long time since NBA scouts have had to make these decisions about high school players. It is hard to know what to put your antennae up about.

And this is likely why Simons could fall anywhere in the latter half of the first round to the early part of the second round. It is easy to like a lot of his game, but unclear how to project where it moves forward.

Simons relied heavily on his athleticism to beat defenses last year. That usually is something to alert to. But he showed plenty of other skills to suggest he could figure things out when his competition increases.

The question with Simons will be whether he can truly move off the ball or improve his offensive skills.

Simons was clearly the best player on his IMG Academy team. And he could clearly do whatever he wanted against most defenses at his level. So it is unclear just what kind of passer he is. Will Simons be a guy who drives mostly looking to score himself, or can he drive to create for others?

At 6-foot-4, he does not have bad size to play shooting guard. He will have the defensive and positional versatility at the next level. That part is not so much the concern. It is just whether he can take on all the responsibilities of a point guard at the next level.

Simons also runs into the trap that most athletes do in thinking he can dribble his way out of trouble. He tends to struggle driving through traffic and if his first move is not available to him, he will put himself in worse positions trying to get himself out.

He can accomplish and get away with that at the high school level, but not in the NBA.

Defensively, Simons also could show some improvement. He has the size to play solid defense. But that has not been a priority in his game. And, of course, he will have to put on some strength to make it in the NBA.