Anfernee Simons is an elite three-point shooter. He can handle the ball well. His isolation scoring is probably underrated at this point in his career. But the defensive end has never been his strong suit. Now with the Boston Celtics, that will have to change.
“We’ve talked about it,” Simons said at Media Day when asked about the criticism of his defense. “It’s just a matter of if I want to do it or not. It’s really that simple. Coming into a culture like this, you have to be able to adapt, or you’re not going to be in the position you wanna be. Whether it’s playing or not playing. To me, it’s really that simple. And those are the honest conversations we had.
“And [Joe] always said, ‘You’re not as bad as people say you are.’ And so, that's good to hear. But also, I got to do the work to get better on that end and focusing on exactly what we need to do on defensive end. And so, like I said, I'm pretty excited about being pushed to a new level which I can reach.”
How bad is Anfernee Simons’ defense?
Joe Mazzulla might be right. Simons may not be as bad on defense as the the rap he’s earned over the years.
In the early stages of his career, Simons was pretty brutal on that end, committing a bunch of fouls and failing to contribute much in the steals or blocks columns. But last year, his foul percentage was just 2.1%, per Cleaning the Glass. That ranked in the 90th percentile of players at his position.
Opponents shot 0.7% worse from the floor when Simons was on the court last season (62nd percentile). However, the Portland Trail Blazers also allowed 2.5 more points per 100 possessions with Simons on the court (28th percentile).
Simons’ defense isn’t great, but there have been some signs of improvement, and he clearly understands the task in front of him: Put in the work on that side of the ball or fail to earn playing time.
The Celtics have made that clear, and Simons knows it. But that’s a challenge he’s willing to face, and one that could drastically alter the course of Boston’s 2025-26 campaign.
If Simons can turn himself into at least an average defender, the Celtics will have one less weakness to worry about in their rotation, which is always a good thing.