Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla hasn't needed long to challenge Anfernee Simons to improve defensively. He praised Simons as being better than anticipated, but true to form, Mazzulla did so in a way that was both encouraging and brutally honest about the work that needs to be done.
Thankfully, Simons appears to be reacting favorably to the mind games that may very well unlock an entirely new level of his untapped All-Star potential.
Boston acquired Simons in the trade that sent Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers and immediately found themselves at the heart of additional rumors. The expectation is that Simons will be traded during the 2025-26 season, but Mazzulla appears intent on exploring the productive scoring guard's abilities before the franchise crosses that bridge.
During his appearance at Media Day, Simons spoke about his past inconsistency on the defensive end of the floor and how honest conversations with Mazzulla are preparing him for the task at hand.
"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."
Simons continued, revealing the two-sided praise that Mazzulla offered him and how it's inspired him to improve and focus on turning weaknesses into strengths.
“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.”
Simons will need to translate the excitement he claims to be experiencing over being pushed by his head coach to the court, but this is a promising start to his Celtics tenure.
Anfernee Simons receptive to Joe Mazzulla pushing for effort on defense
Simons is an unavoidably intriguing offensive player, capable of scoring and facilitating at star-caliber levels. He's averaged as many 22.6 points and 5.5 assists per game, is a career 38.6 percent shooter from beyond the arc, and has recored 31 games with at least 30 points over the past three seasons.
That's certainly relevant considering Boston is in dire need of creativity on offense after losing Jayson Tatum to an Achilles injury and trading Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis.
The primary reason Simons has yet to clinch an All-Star nod, however, is his reputation as a poor defender. It's fair to question how bad he actually is, but he openly acknowledged his previous unreliability on the defensive end of the floor at Media Day.
With this in mind, it appears as though Mazzulla's blunt conversations with Simons are successfully raising his awareness in regard to the areas in which he must improve.
Simons admittedly has defensive limitations as a 6'3" shooting guard. Effort and intensity are in no way size-dependent, however, as Holiday and Derrick White have earned reputations as legitimately elite defenders despite their only being an inch taller than Simons.
Equipped with a 6'9.25" wingspan that's longer than both Holiday's and White's, there's ample reason to believe Simons can overcome his limitations and produce a significantly higher level of consistency.
The fact that Simons knows his defense will go hand-in-hand with his playing time in 2025-26 is a promising start. He's openly and publicly acknowledged a fact that many offensively-slanted players have been quick to become disgruntled over in the past.
Words become meaningless when they fail to translate to actions, but Simons is saying all of the right things in response to Mazzulla's early tests.