In Layman’s first game he went crazy and scored 17 points in less than 5 minutes. That was it. The best we would ever get from him. In Simon’s first game, he went for 37 points and 9 assists. That, it seems, was it. Haven’t really seen much from him since then. Hope I’m wrong, but Simons has been a big disappointment this year. Right now, when we could really use some help at the guard position, he’s giving us very little. It feels like Jake Layman all over again.
I doubt. This is Simons rookie season first of all and his show already way more flashes that could be something than layman. He’s struggle right now, he take a lot of fouls, inconsistent with his jump shots and turnovers. He’s young, and last year he didn’t play a bit - for you improve you gotta play look at Trent have big performances, he just needed time, so as i think little should have more play time, he’s a very talented rookie, he rebound, has size, is shooting the ball well, he’s other example I think will improve his game once he has more play time.
Bayless. His first start in place of an injured Roy he looked great. In fact, it may have been the best game of his Blazer tenure.
I wish Simons would play as well as Layman did for our last year during the regular season. His 24 point quarter was one of the highlights of the year for me.
Funny how we forget the stretch of basketball that Jake had last year, where he scored double figures in 11 out of 15 games. Or that we forget that Simons is still young and probably needs another year. Or that a lot of people (myself included) were already going to give up on Trent for a large portion of this current season.
Man I been saying this for months. But he has been terrible. Can’t believe players and Neil rave about him.
i know his brief little hot run that he had sent the rookie card collectors on a massive binge for his stuff as part of the speculation market, not exactly paying huge investment dividends. i was tempted to do a bit of that for gary trent jr, but held off. mostly ive been buying brandon clarke cards recently - pretty cheap, and the kid is having a great rookie year considering.
I see Simons as more like Travis Outlaw or Martell Webster, both drafted at a very young age. We thought they'd be battling to be our starter SF for the decade. Turns out they both lost. Both of them had flashes - Outlaw's 13-game-win-streak-starting-game-winner and occasional amazing dunks, Martell's record number of points in a quarter, but neither of them ever solidified into an NBA starter.
I wanted us to draft Jalen Brunson, who is sort of the opposite of Simons. Short arms, unathletic, old for the draft, but is actually better than he appears in a team setting. If you held a workout for each of them, no doubt Anfernee would blow Brunson out of the water. Simons has a few years to catch up to where Brunson is, as he's already 23, but will he ever make it?
He's barely behind him now. And Brunson is almost 3 years older and experienced 3 years of college basketball. That does make a difference for most players (of course you'll get the occasional 1 and done players, but in most cases players benefit from playing at least 2 seasons of college ball). I get why fans are "what have you done for me lately". Like I said earlier in this thread, I gave up on Trent early in the season. But maybe if people had realistic expectations for what Simons was supposed to give this year, it would help them when it comes to their knee jerk reactions to everything, or their need to be "right" about a player immediately. If by the time Simons is 23 he is averaging what Brunson is now, I'd actually be disappointed.
that wasn't Simon's first game. his first game he went zero's across the board. the game you are talking about was his 20th game.
Folks truly underestimate what this "barely out of high school" skinny kid is going through. Not every 19 year old is ready. Simons is not LeBron, or Zion. But the glimpses he has shown tell me he needs a year to adjust. Last year didn't count he was just along for the ride. He has been borderline disasterous, but if you can't see the potential, I don't know what to tell you.
Clearly we have different definitions of "barely". Or perhaps you mean that Anfernee is mooning him. Well GET READY..
all that may be true, but Simons played in more games and had more minutes than Trent last year, and posted much better numbers. Trent didn't look like an NBA player this season , Simons has played in 12 more games than Trent, and has logged 400 more minutes; he's averaged 3 more minutes a game. Trent is only 6 months older than Simons, but clearly, Trent is a much better, more complete player at this point. Statistically, Simons is bad and he's posting worse numbers this year than last year. Meanwhile, Trent has made the jumps in stats you want to see from a 2nd year player. When summer league starts, they will both be 21...so the "he's 19" excuse is running out of rope as far as potential, yeah I see some. But over the years way too often the potential I've seen young players flash turns out to be a mirage. Telfaire, Outlaw, Jack, Rudy, Sergio, McRoberts, Bayless, Webster....it's a long list. The list of players with potential that live up to is is much shorter, like Roy, Aldridge, Dame. CJ might be the only reasonable comp, but Simons already has 370 more minutes in his 2nd season than CJ had. Really, what's left with Simons is a lot of hope that that missing year of college ball has set him way back. I'm not sure that's credible at this point...maybe
Look, I'm the guy who thought Eliot Williams was gonna be the next breakout star, so what do I know? But I like Simons. No denying he's struggling, but not all 19 year olds make it. Give him one more year.
I agree he'll get one more year. Very likely 2 more, at minimum, because those are rookie scale years and Portland needs cheap salaries at the middle and lower end of the rotations. And with Olshey as his cheerleader, Simons will probably get 5 more years
Yeah, he's averaging 1.8 more per 36, 4 assists more per 36 (since Simons isn't playing the PG spot, not a fair comparison) and .8 more rebounds per 36. And the bulk of Brunsons shots are 2 pt fg's (almost 70% of his shots) vs 58%. Brunson has scored above his average about the same amount of times Simons has. They both have 28 games where they scored under 7 points, including 5 games for Jalen where he had a goose egg (vs 1 for Simons). Simons has scored 4 points or less, 12 times this year. Brunson? 21 games. Yes, Simons shoots worse, but let's not act like Brunson is having an awesome season and Simons is crap. So like I said, I'm not sure I'd be all "he's so much better!" when he's actually not. Are his overall #'s better? Yeah. But he's also 3 years ahead of him. So, it's no surprise that his game is a little more developed. your record of prognostication speaks for itself.
My stance on Anfernee is he was thrust into the rotation at least a year earlier than he should have been. He’s also been asked to do more than original planned because of all the injuries. This has hurt him and the team this season, but my bet is it’ll pay off in the long run, starting as early as next season. Players don’t all develop at the same pace. If it takes him four years that’s ok too. The talent and skill is there, it’ll just require patience. I learned that lesson back with CJ.
