Celtics Predicted to Trade Former 22.6 Points Per Game Scorer

The Boston Celtics look pretty damn good. They’ve climbed their way up the Eastern Conference standings and, as of Thursday, are the third seed in the East. The Celtics have been playing much better than expected, especially with Jayson Tatum still recovering from injury.

Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report recently predicted “The 1 Player On Every NBA Team Most Likely To Be Traded” and it was no surprise that the Celtic he put on his list was Anfernee Simons. 

“Simons started 70 games in Portland a year ago but hasn't been in Boston's first unit once. He is, however, producing in his smaller role. The 26-year-old is hitting 40.1 percent of his threes and scoring 20.4 points per 36 minutes, right in line with his career mark of 20.2.

It might be tempting for Boston to flip Sam Hauser's smaller salary instead, letting Simons' deal simply expire at the end of the season.

The smarter move still seems to be sending Simons out for an inferior, cheaper player and draft capital. Somebody will give up assets for an excellent three-point shooter who averaged at least 19.3 points per game in each of the last three seasons.”

While the Celtics have been winning, Simons has been in and out of the lineup. He is only averaging 23.6 minutes per game and is scoring only 13.4 points per game. 

The question for the Celtics is, what is Simons’ trade value? If they can get any value back, they might as well ship him off to a team that wants to take a flier on him.