Manning: How Celtics Have Coached Anfernee Simons to Thrive on Defense
October 6, 2025
Manning: How Celtics Have Coached Anfernee Simons to Thrive on Defense
7 comments
That’s exactly where I thought simons could prove value too; become a defensive playmaker
He’s got a great wingspan and is very athletic, if he can simply hold up on ball and be as active as possible in the team defensive scheme I think we can squeeze plus defense out of him
Definitely a great hype article. Simons has a lot of talent on the offensive side – like really impressive stuff. If he can use this new knowledge with his athleticism, he could become at least an okay defender. We legit could use a player like him moving forward if he’s willing to put in the work
i’ll believe it when i see it
Uh… lets wait until it actually happens before patting our own backs.
This feels like something that should be written a few weeks into the season at the earliest
Hopefully he can at least be neutral on defense. Among players that played >1000 minutes last year, his DRAPTOR was bottom 20 in the league and that’s on a Blazers team that had a top 5 defense in the 2nd half of the year.
The good news is that there’s a model for a top 5 defense with Simons on the team. For an upstart team, it’s good to have an IT/Kyrie/Kemba-type of guard, but the Smart/White/Jrue type of guard are the ones that got us to the Finals and eventual champions.
7 comments
That’s exactly where I thought simons could prove value too; become a defensive playmaker
He’s got a great wingspan and is very athletic, if he can simply hold up on ball and be as active as possible in the team defensive scheme I think we can squeeze plus defense out of him
Definitely a great hype article. Simons has a lot of talent on the offensive side – like really impressive stuff. If he can use this new knowledge with his athleticism, he could become at least an okay defender. We legit could use a player like him moving forward if he’s willing to put in the work
i’ll believe it when i see it
Uh… lets wait until it actually happens before patting our own backs.
This feels like something that should be written a few weeks into the season at the earliest
Hopefully he can at least be neutral on defense. Among players that played >1000 minutes last year, his DRAPTOR was bottom 20 in the league and that’s on a Blazers team that had a top 5 defense in the 2nd half of the year.
The good news is that there’s a model for a top 5 defense with Simons on the team. For an upstart team, it’s good to have an IT/Kyrie/Kemba-type of guard, but the Smart/White/Jrue type of guard are the ones that got us to the Finals and eventual champions.
DPOY incoming…