Celtics Face CRUCIAL Decision on Simons’ Playing Time | Will CHEMISTRY Issues ARISE?

Anthony Simons looks like he’s sticking around for a little while. So, what does that mean? Should he start? Should he come off the bench? We’ll talk about it right now on the Locked On Celtics podcast. [Music] Uh-huh. Y ready to see. Who else could it be? What they going to say now? Screaming like JT Cares. We kept the madness every game, every practice. Prime time Deon D White on the sideline rain and Jace how we started raising business how we finish locked on Celtics home of the winners. Hey there welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. It’s your team every day your team is the Boston Celtics and I cover them Monday through Friday on this podcast. I’m John Carales bew writer covering it for Boston Sports Journal written a couple books on this team. I uh yeah, I just have been doing this job for like about 20 years. So, uh hope you enjoy it. It’s Monday through Friday. It’s free. It’s available everywhere. It’s on YouTube. Get into the comment section. Share your thoughts there. Today’s show is brought to you by FanDuel. New customers, you bet $5. And if your bet wins, you get 300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. So, Anthony Simons, we’ve kind of been like avoiding him because I didn’t think he was going to be available on or be a Celtic on opening night, but actually we’re we’re at a point here where he might he might be. It’s looking like he’s going to be a member of the Boston Celtics. And so, why not talk about him as if he’s a member of the Boston Celtics? And we’re going to do it with noted Anthony Simons afficionado Tom Westerhome. What’s going on, Tom? I can’t stop winning. You win. I won one. But, uh, this is this is a nice, you know, I won one here, Tom. I I’ve heard that you win win win no matter what. Yeah, that’s just objectively not true. I can’t I can’t even play along. However, I am glad that Anthony Simons is going to be on the roster. I think it’s uh good, actually. So, we’ll make the argument for starting and for coming off the bench because we don’t know what he’s going to do uh at this point. So, second segment with the argument for starting. The third off the bench. Let’s just begin this podcast with this awkward situation that Simons is in. They didn’t do an introductory press conference. They waited because no one knew if he was going to be a part of this team. He didn’t know if he was going to be a part of this team. And now Mia Day is going to come uh in two weeks and the questions he’s going to start getting is, “Hey, wow, no one thought you were going to be here and yet here you are.” How funny is that? And so it’s going to be interesting to see, first of all, Tom, how he just kind of like rolls with those punches and and how he kind of like just because he know he knows what’s happening. He understands that the team didn’t get him to keep him. So, it right away it’s awkward. Yeah, it it is for sure. I I think um you know, it’s it’s funny, right? Because I think that with Simons, there’s this um there’s this opportunity here to to to really uh open some eyes to really do something on this Celtics team. I I mean, he’s he really has for a guy who is on a team that he wasn’t sure if he was going to be on when he was traded. He really is in kind of an enviable situation. I mean, he has he’s going to have a lot of opportunities. He’s going to have plenty of opportunities to prove himself. Plenty of ch, you know, he’s, you know, I think you and I both probably think he’s going to be playing not for a great team, but like a low-level playoff team, right? Like I think I mean that’s and that’s assuming that obviously that he sticks around all year, but he could be a winning, you know, contributing to winning kind of player. Yeah. With the right performance this year. That’s not a bad situation to be in. Uh when you when you get traded during the offseason, you could be traded to much much worse situations than that. Um and yet there is still you’re 100% right. I mean, there’s there’s going to be I mean, the introductory press conference thing, I think, really stands out. Like, it’s like that’s, you know, that that really says a lot about how tenuous his uh connection to this franchise was. And, you know, it’ll be interesting to see how tenuous he still feels it to be cuz like, you know, again, it’s an opportunity, but it’s not a team that was exactly clamoring for you. That’s right. Um, and I think I think Brad will come out and say, “Look, we got him. We obviously we’re doing our our, you know, due diligence and we’re trying to accomplish certain things, but you you don’t trade for a player that you wouldn’t want on your team.” I feel like that would be a line that comes out of Brad Stevens mouth. You never trade for a player that you wouldn’t want on your team. And I think that’s going to be where they roll with Simons’s, you know, at least to start. There’s a little bit of damage control that’s going to be going on here. They’re gonna need to make him feel wanted. They’re going to need to make him feel like he’s part of this this plan moving forward. And who knows? I you you just never know, right? You we can come in and say this was the plan, and it very obviously was the plan to continue exploring trades, but maybe they hit on something. It’s not out of the question to say. No, it’s not. They hit on something with trading for Anthony Simons. He’s a He’s an unrestricted free agent after the season. So, that does kind of like make things a little weird with, you know, what are they going to want to pay him? But, we’ll have that discussion another time. right now they have a player that is a really good offensive player, you know, and it’s awkward, but if you can get past that, you have yourself a really good player. Tom, Anthony Simons is, if you like, think about it, of all the players on this roster, he’s the only one that’s been at the top of the opposing team’s scout for an entire season, right? Cuz yeah, Jaylen has had Jason ahead of him. Guys have had other, you know, everybody’s had players ahead of him on the opposing team’s defensive scout except for Anthony Simons. He has been the focal point of every team’s defense. When you play the the the Blazers, it’s like, “All right, shut down Simons and and you get yourself a chance to win.” So, you’re getting a guy that’s used to having a lot of defensive attention. And I think the first thing that he’s going to appreciate when he comes to Boston is I I don’t have that same defensive attention on me. No matter no matter what lineup, start or come off the bench, he’s gonna have he’s gonna have a I think a little bit more space to work with, which I think I think can help him get past the awkwardness pretty quickly. I Tom, I guess this question this is the question here. With all of that said, knowing that the Celtics didn’t trade him for the sake of like, hey, we wanted you. Is he going to go like on his own? Look, look, I’m just going to do my thing. When when the tiebreaker needs to be broken, I’m shooting rather than passing. Like, is that going to be something that we’re going to face with him this year? I mean, one way or the other, if the tiebreaker is that, like, okay, he’s an awesome shooter. He’s an awesome offensive player. He’s a threelevel scorer. He’s he’s everything that you could want in an offensive player. I I mean I I think like if if Anthony Simons is like default is like, “All right, hang on. I’m just going to go get a bucket here.” Like that’s not a bad thing. That’s as good an option as you’ve got. You know, it’s one of the best options you’ve got on this team. Like I I don’t know that I I don’t know that I see the the downside there. I I think um this is a fair point. You know, I I mean, I I think that there’s I think that there’s been a lot of tempering of expectations with Simons because everybody thought that he was gone, right? Everybody thought that he was going to get traded. Everybody thought that he was, you know, kind of a dead man walking on this roster. But like listen, I mean your point, like if if Brad said if Brad literally said word for word what you just said, right, where you don’t trade for somebody that you don’t want on your roster, that would be valid. Anthony Simons is good and like I don’t know. I mean I I think I do think that he is I mean he’s enough of a prof he’s been in the league for a little while now. I think that he will probably be enough of a professional to understand how important this year is for him, right? So I I think that that’s I think that’s one thing. I think if he can show people, hey, I can produce numbers on a winning team and contribute to winning, that money is a heck of a lot different than I’m a volume microwave scorer, right? Volume microwave score gets you money, gets you a job, but like I’m a I’m a like big time volume, you know, efficient scorer who also helps teams win. those guys get money money and like yeah I mean I I if I’m him like that’s that’s worth swallowing my pride a little bit and playing for a team that was like hey we might want to trade you. It’s not like the Celtics did anything egregious you know like the Celtics brought Anthony Simons in and said like listen we’re not a contending team this year so we don’t know if we’re going to keep you. You’re a good player. You know I mean there’s such an easy spin, right? It’s just like we think you’re a really good player. we we just aren’t really we weren’t sure if we were going to be trying to win this year. We weren’t sure what was going on. You just tell Simons that and it’s like I don’t know that to me that seems reasonable and you know again and then I think you’re just just comes down to the fact that you’ve got a good player on your roster and uh you get to try to see how that works. However this goes the Celtics will have a really good offensive player on their roster. Yeah. Now, I say offensive player, is his defense going to get where it needs to be for him to be all of those things to get that money money that you said? Um, which would I think play into whether he is a starter, whether he comes off the bench or whether he’s a finisher. You know, you could be one or the other and and not a finisher. Uh, so let’s explore all of that. We’ll make the argument for starting when we come back. Today’s show is brought to you by FiveHour Energy Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. Five Hour Energy Shots deliver tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. 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Go check out Lockdown NBA, Lockdown NBA game night. Two shows on the same feed. So, you just got to subscribe to one. You get me and Jake Madison on Fridays right now talking about the biggest stories in the NBA on both shows, but when the season starts, game night is going to live up to its name and we’re going to cover every game that night in the association. So, subscribe wherever you get your podcast. All right, let’s get back to the Anthony Simons discussion. Let’s make the argument for him as a starter. Um, and look, I don’t know. I have my feelings on who should start, who who knows how it’s going to go. Who knows if it’s going to last all season? Who knows if it’s going to be consistent or inconsistent or based on matchups? I don’t know that the Celtics know, but you can make a strong argument for Anthony Simons as a starter. I think I’m not going to rehash my argument for having the point guard of either Derek White or Pton Pritchard on the floor at all times. I think those are your two best point guards and that helps you stagger Jaylen and Derek. I think having Simons on the floor obviously you you know having more guys on the floor right away that can get buckets can help you get off to better starts. I like that it takes pressure off of Jaylen Brown. And if you’re gonna throw double teams at Jaylen Brown, how awesome would it be to play four on three and Anthony Simons is one of those options? So, I think Simons as a starter makes a whole lot of sense. I really I mean I I know you you brought me on to be the the the resident, you know, Anfrey Simons guy, so I mean I kind of have to think that he should be a starter. And you don’t have to. You don’t have to. Whatever is best. Tom, you’re a free thinker, man. And I do. So, it’s, you know, it works out great uh for everybody involved. I I think I I think that Celtics fans might be underrating Simons a little bit. I think a little bit on both ends, maybe. I I think that we’ve kind of forgotten maybe what like he’s really good. Like, he’s good in the pick and roll. He’s good. He’s a really good three-point shooter. Like, off the bounce, that’s that really matters. like there’s there’s like he you can see very much that like he was following in the footsteps of Dame and I’m not saying that he is Damen Lillard, but like he built his game in really similar ways, you know, like he he’s I think, you know, he’s a kind of an underrated passer out of the pick and roll. He’s he gets to the rim. He’s got these kind of, you know, he’s got a couple of kind of crafty finishes that he that that he can pull off. Like I just I think he’s just a really good player offensively. And then, you know, defensively there’s going to be issues. I think that that’s not, you know, that but I also to some extent I’m curious if they’re going to be a if they’ve been a little bit overstated. We’ll see. Okay. I mean, but he has but he’s got good size. I I don’t you know when I when I watched the the Blazers, which admittedly were not, you know, my number one league pass team by any stretch of the imagination, but like, you know, it’s not like, you know, it’s not just pure awful, right? It’s a guy who there’s he’s not sitting there doing nothing. He’s not just only trying on one end. And and I think like, you know, you surround him with the right pieces. I think defensively like you’ve got a guy with plenty of size for his position. I I don’t think that there’s a huge issue there. So, I don’t know. I I I I do think that the defense is going to be a little bit of a struggle, but the defense is going to be, you know, what it is on this Celtics team either way. They’re going to have to outscore a lot of teams and Anthony Simons will really help you outscore teams. So, I I’m with you on like taking pressure off Jaylen. I think that’s really good. I I I like the idea of having Derek White, Jaylen Brown, Anthony Simons on the floor together. I mean, offensively, I just think there’s there’s so much good stuff going on there. You know, we we talked um about, you know, earlier in the summer about how like, you know, if teams take away Jaylen, then what? And it’s like, well, you know what? If the answer is, okay, then Anthony Simons and Derek White. Yeah, that’s good enough. That will score you points. That will score you plenty of points. The defense is interesting, right? So you have on the one hand a track record of seven years in the NBA of not being a good defender. It’s a long time and it’s a long time even even if he can sit there if he were on the podcast he’d be like yeah but you know I can be better. Yeah. Seven years is a long time to build up those bad habits. No question. You know what I mean? So all of those times where you kind of quit and you kind of die on a screen or you just are not paying attention and you get back cut, all of those things. Okay, fine. You know, early on I I can buy it. But after a while, you just that becomes your default setting. And I’m not saying that he can’t get away from that, but I do I do need to see it before I kind of take his word for it. You can give him all the benefit of the doubt in the world, right? Um, you know, his his first, you know, his first exposure to the NBA, he’s playing with Damen Lillard and CJ McCollum. He’s not exactly playing with the defensive stalwarts out there. So, he’s not getting that message. And then then the the Blazers kind of suck and there’s not a lot of motivation out there. And so, okay, the the the kid’s 25 2 How old is he? 26. Believe he’s 26. Yep. Yeah. So, he’s Yeah, he he just turned 26 in June. So, he’s still young. He’s just entering his prime. You can you can make certainly give him plenty benefit of the doubt, but he definitely definitely definitely needs to show it quickly. He needs to prove us wrong quickly or else that default setting is going to be kind of where he’s he’s constantly fighting from. And that’s that’s just look that’s the reality. And Joe Misoula knows he knows defense even though he’s got the three-point uh reputation. He knows defense. He handled the defense under Eme Udoka. Uh you’ve got Jaylen Brown. You got Derek White. You’ve got all defense level guys. You’ve got guys that know you got guys like Payton Pritchard who overcome a lot of that stuff with effort. So you could make the argument that you put Simons in that situation and he’s like, “Oh, damn. I got to keep up. I gotta keep up with Pritchard. I gotta keep up with these guys. And if they harp on him, then great. So I show me, show me, just show me. But starting him, putting him out there and taking some of the shackles off because he’s not the primary, you know, scout anymore. You have to worry about Jaylen. You have to worry about Derek. like to have Simons as a second or third option, that’s that is incredible. There’s no doubt about it. That’s incredible. And if his defense can match at or or improve some level of, you know, double-digit percentage, then you have yourself a hell of a player. And you more more likely than not would want to put him in a familiar situation, put Payton Pritchard in a familiar situation, and let everybody cook the way they know how to cook. Do you who who does he need to be better than defensively for you to be like that guy should be a starter? Like if he’s better than like so like Darius Garland is like the floor, right? That’s like the the worst Sure. defender. Okay. Yeah. I mean, look, if he’s better defensively than Darius Garland, do you think he’s a starter? Well, yeah. Okay. Sure. Like, yeah. I Okay. Yeah, that’s fine if we want to look at it that way. Um I’m just curious. Yeah. No, I mean, look, he we can make the argument that he should be a starter without being better than Darius Garland. We can make we can make the argument he’s a starter as is right now with no defensive improvement. I’m just saying that it would be great to see because if we see that then there’s to me there’s no doubt. There’s no doubt. To me, there’s no doubt that you start him if that’s the case. And and at that point, you have to talk about like do you extend him? Do you like sign him? Does he stick around? You How do you reshape your roster with him in the mix? So, there’s if he can be any good defensively, then that that whether he should start becomes one of many questions that that come up with him for sure. There is an argument for him coming off the bench. I don’t want to hear it. I think I think you do. I think I think you’re going to have to participate. Or you can just leave. You can just leave and be like, “Hey, say see you. Appreciate your time.” I You did what you had to do. I came on to advocate for the man. I’m Yeah, I’m ready. All right. Should Should Anthony Simons What’s the argument for him coming off the bench? And will Tom Wesserhome return to the podcast? We’ll find out after this big mystery. I’m going to bet. I’m going to open up my FanDuel app and see if there’s line and odds on Tom Wesserhome coming back. Obviously, NFL season is here. FanDuel’s making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Just bet five bucks. If your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. No one cares what the bet is. You just got to bet five bucks on something and win. So, make it the easiest bet in the world. Win your five bucks. Win your $5 bet and get your $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. And then when Sunday rolls around, you want to bet on player props. 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I don’t know if that we got locked on cricket, but hey, baseball, football, hockey, college, whatever your favorite other team is in another sport, check it out. Locked on has you covered. Uh Tom Westerhome. A is he not here? A psych. It’s a bad beat for any of you who bet against me. Uh all right. The argument for Anthony Simons coming off the bench. I think I think it’s simple. Well, okay, twofold. I think you would have to believe that Pton Pritchard, having been here, has earned it. And you just have to be like, “Look, man. We’re just we’re going with him and that’s it.” And so, Pritchard, Derek Wings, as uh the internet would say. What was that? Count the rings, as the internet. Exactly. Exactly. So Pritchard and and Derek White. So Derek White would move off the ball. Jaylen Brown and your center. I’m going to just assume it’s Namish Kada at this point. And then your power forward. You go Chris Buché, you go Sam Hower, however they decide to do it, they do it. Um then you can just believe in that and say the guys who have been here have earned it and so we’re going with that. And then that brings Simons off the bench and he just gets the cook as the primary guy. And I think that’s one of the the the best argument that you can have is he’s the guy that because he’s used to playing on a team that’s kind of like eh and being the focal point and handling all everything, right? He’s been double teamed. He’s been like everything against a a bad Blazers team and he still put up these incredible offensive numbers. Well, the Celtics in the lineups if he’s coming off the bench with him as the primary guy will be kind of eh be kind of Portlandish. And so he’s used to it. He knows it. He gets it and he’s cooked he’s cooked very well in those lineups. There is, I think, a strong argument to be like, hey, if anybody can handle that situation, let’s give it to the guy who’s handled that situation already. I Okay, so I I think that’s honestly I think that’s a strong argument. Um I I hear you. I I think that like my my only counter to it is just it it’s it’s it’s really simple. I just think he’s a little too good. like I think he’s just a little too good to and I know we’re making the argument for coming off the bench now. I but I guess my my response to that is like yeah fair enough like all of that makes sense. I think that like and I also think there’s a lot to be said for you know starting the game strong and then still having like being able to bring something in. I mean, you know, it like Pton Pritchard is a good player, but you don’t bring him in as like off the bench to be like an ISO scoring kind of guy. If you’re, you know, if you’re staggering your go-to scorers a little bit, that’s not a, you know, that’s not a bad way of doing it, right? Start one of them, have the other one come off the bench. You know, sometimes they play together and they play off each other. Maybe they finish together like you were saying at the start. I mean, I think all of that is is definitely valid. I think for me, it’s just it just literally comes down to like I think Simons is pretty good. Like I think he’s just a little too good to come off the bench. And if I were if it were me, I’d rather kind of stagger things down the line, you know, like like, okay, maybe Simons comes off at the 8 minute mark and then, you know, Jaylen comes off at the, you know, two minute, whatever it is, you know, however you do it. I personally would would go that direction. Just even on the off chance, right, that Simons does perform so much this year that you want to keep him happy. You want to make him feel like he’s part of of a Boston team going forward. Um, you know, I mean, like that possibility exists, too. Um, anyway. Yeah, go ahead. No, I’m so I agree with you. And okay, what what would make him happy? I guess this is another part of the argument of starting or sitting or or or or coming off the bench, what would make him happy? What gets him more touches and more shots? Yeah. I mean, we we don’t know what would make him more happy because he’s never been introduced to the media, so who knows? Fair enough. But but but what gets him more shots? Like he’s going to get what has he averaged? I have his stats up here. Um he has averaged uh 12. Okay. Well, last season 16 shots. Before that, 18. Before that, 17. So, let’s just say 17ish shots per game uh that he’s averaged, which is okay, fair. I think that’s uh you know, maybe maybe he’s not going to get 20. Maybe he shouldn’t expect 20. Last season, uh, Jaylen got 17, so almost 18. Jason got 20. So, you know, that’s being in that Jason or Jaylen range like, okay, so Jaylen will pump up to 20. Yeah. What gets Anthony Simon 17 shots? Is it going to be playing next to Derek White? Do you want Derek White to be taking more shots? I do. So, isn’t it possible that him coming off the bench is the best way for him to get the shots that he wants to to get a fiveminute stretch where, like I said at the top of the show, the tiebreaker between pass and shoot, he’s going to be like, “No, man. I’m shooting.” Well, if you’re on the floor with I mean, Luca Garz is a decent offensive player, but like if you’re on the floor with some of the scraps of the Celtics are have put together, no disrespect intended, but but plenty came across, but none was intended. But like wouldn’t would that be the way to be like, “Hey, this is how you get to 17 18 shots by middle of the second quarter, middle of the, you know, beginning of the fourth quarter, whatever. You get to just go out there and do your thing.” Yeah. I mean, that so there I think there’s a lot of validity to that. I I I also think again I I think you could you could still accomplish very much the same thing like like you know by staggering him out of the starting lineup you know by by having him in the starting lineup stagger him shortly you know have him be the first sub out so that he can come in you know I mean you know I I mean at some point we’re really kind of I I think that we’re um I think that we’re kind of falling into the thing you know Joe Mula would probably yell at us for focusing so much on starting versus coming off the bench right because like what what it really comes down to was just uh the respect of starting kind of thing. Uh my counterpoint my counterpoint to that is okay I get it there’s validity to it but my counterpoint is th this is also how you set your rotations. So him coming off the bench and him starting changes who’s on the floor with whom at what time. And so there is some validity to figuring out who starts and who comes off the bench. And it’s not even just who has earned it and who has the like that that existential stuff. It’s more like how do you want to play the beginning of the second quarter? Do you want Jaylen Brown to start the second quarter? Do you want Anthony Simons to start the second quarter? Do you want how what pairings do you want? Do you want Simons and Derek White? Do you want Jaylen Brown and Derek White? How those things are the important part of figuring figuring out like how you want to play certain situations? And so how you start and having guys available and it may be as simple like you just mentioned starting Simons maybe he’s the first sub out and you bring in and you stagger and then he subs in for Jaylen and now you have you honestly your two best like most dynamic scorers, right? Because yeah, as much as I love Derek White and and think he’s a great basketball player, Anthony Simons is just a pure scorer at heart. And so him and Jaylen are your two best scorers. So subbing them in for one another, there’s there’s there’s sense to that somehow. So however they do it, start them, bring them off the bench, I can see them saying this is how we want to run our rotations. I think it’ll be kind of interesting to see like okay does like could the Celtics you know last season the way that they subbed Jaylen and Jason right having you know you know a lot of times having um you know Tatum play like you know a huge chunk of the first quarter whatever it might be it would be interesting to see if like if they kind of like move Jaylen up to Jason’s role or and have Simons kind of play some of you know like you were saying right some of those like you know those uh um play against some of those second units or if that’s something that Jaylen kind of likes to do cuz like Jaylen you know did really well against second units a lot of the time last year. It’d be interesting to see uh how I don’t know it’ll be interesting to see how they how they shuffle those guys up but I think I think there’s a strong argument to be made for either side. Yeah, smart him bring him off the bench. I think either way, um, you can make a strong argument and I think I think there’s there’s validity to both. There’s it’ll it’ll work to some degree. Um, so I don’t know. So, we’ll see. People, you know, share your thoughts in the comments section and let us know. Tom, thank you for hopping on. I do appreciate you as always and I do appreciate you listening, watching, however you’re listening, being an everyday or joining me every Monday through Friday. Camp is opening up very soon. So, we are now moving away from our offseason type of content and we’re starting to get into the deeper looks at this team. What can we expect? What should we expect? Who are these guys? And there will be a lot more Anthony Simons talk because we we didn’t talk about him all summer because we didn’t think he was going to be here and the Celtics were a little complicit in that because they didn’t they didn’t introduce him. They didn’t do any of that stuff. They made it seem like he wasn’t going to be here either. And okay, so he’s here. What does that all mean? This this show is one of I’m sure many that we will do all off all preseason. So make sure you’re subscribed wherever you get your podcast. We’re going to be breaking everything down. Watch the show on YouTube. Like I said, get into the comments section. share your thoughts on whether Simon should start or come off the bench for however long he’s here. Is it this year? Is it half a year? Is it multiple years? Who knows? What should he do? What should the Celtics do? And then once you do that, I would love it if you shared the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, it’s your team every day.

Anfernee Simons to the Boston Celtics: Game-changer or bench boost? The NBA’s latest trade sparks fierce debate.

John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal and guest Tom Westerholm dissect Simons’ potential role with the Celtics. From offensive firepower to defensive concerns, they explore the pros and cons of starting versus coming off the bench. The discussion covers Simons’ impact on Jaylen Brown, rotation dynamics, and shot distribution. Key players like Derrick White and Payton Pritchard factor into the analysis of how Simons fits into Boston’s strategy.

Tune in for expert insights on how Simons could reshape the Celtics’ offense and potentially elevate their championship aspirations.

1:15 Intro: Anfernee Simons’ future with Celtics
5:04 Simons’ awkward situation and potential impact
11:45 Case for Simons starting
16:00 Discussing Simons’ defensive capabilities
21:05 Considering Simons coming off the bench
26:40 Balancing Simons’ role and shot attempts
31:48 Potential rotation strategies with Simons

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Locked On Celtics is a daily Boston Celtics podcast by Boston Sports Journal beat writer John Karalis. It’s an inside look at the C’s from a former professional basketball player who is at practices & games.

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6 comments
  1. Sixth man he's not a very good player and has no part of our future. He's a major liability on defense and shows no effort on that side of the floor. We need him to look good so we can trade him so bring him off the bench in the role that suits his skillset the best!

  2. It's a shame because I think Pritchard rightfly should be starting over Simmons. He defends way better and is capable of average 20 a night, but unfortunately, Simmons is gonna end up starting.

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