Can Anfernee Simons help keep Mazzulla Ball running?

Newly acquired Celtics guard Anfernee Simons has been in the NBA for seven seasons now. In the last four years of his Portland tenure, Simons averaged double-digit shooting volume with 3-point attempts accounting for 52.6% of his shot diet.

It’s fair to question how different Boston looks stylistically when you break up a championship core, but if there’s one thing that we can be sure of with the return in last night’s Jrue Holiday trade, it’s that Simons has the makings of a built-in Mazzulla Ball mindset.

The Celtics are far from done in the trade market, making a discussion of play style feel preliminary. Even as I type, there’s a slight reluctance to fully commit to the fact that Simons is still a Celtic by the end of the draft’s first night.

Still $18 million away from escaping the quicksand ramifications of the second apron, the expiring contract of a 26-year-old that nearly averaged 20 points a night for a third straight season has value, and as we’ve seen from multiple sources, the Celtics are actively engaging with multiple teams on another trade.

A trade that’s done does not make a day finished. There are so many ways the Celtics could navigate the path forward. Chances are, it’ll be Sam Hauser and Kristaps Porzingis who are moved to avoid the second apron, so let’s proceed forward like Simons is a Celtic on opening night.

Last season, Simons was Portland’s most active 3-point shooter by a significant margin with 8.5 attempts per game. His 215 made threes make him one of 20 players to convert on 200 shots from beyond the arc, joined by new teammates Payton Pritchard, Derrick White and Jayson Tatum.

The Blazers were 14th in the league in 3-point attempts with Simons leading the way in that category. Now imagine what that looks like with a team that shot 860 more attempts than they did.

The fit in how those threes are created is where things can get tricky. Boston’s drive-and-kick game and spacing preys on collapsing help defense and rotations. In the regular season, Boston was second in the league in catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts (30.7), but where Simons likes to find his shot is through self-creation and isolation possessions.

According to Basketball Index, 19% of Simons’ scoring possessions were perimeter isolations. Of the 262 jump shots he attempted this year, 147 of them were step-backs.

The void of Tatum’s shot creation looms large, opening the door for another type of creator, but whether or not Simons can work to find his shot in a different system without it bending too far into something different is a debate we’ll be having all summer.

Barring a seismic trade involving a key backcourt piece, the Celtics have the lineup options of combining Simons, Pritchard, White and Jaylen Brown to best maximize player skillsets.

The idea of a Simons/Pritchard second-unit run is certainly intriguing with its quick-fire pace, and Brown/Simons on the floor together could make sense in a “your turn/my turn” kind of way, but for my money, it’d be a Simons/White pairing that’d produce the most interesting results.

White’s ability to mold his game to be an off-the-catch shot-maker or on-ball initiator would provide Simons the freedom to run the show in his minutes, while having a reliable shooting outlet right beside him.

It would not shock me to see the next major domino fall as soon as today. The Celtics, still holding onto two 2025 draft picks, will look significantly different after the draft concludes Thursday night, but there’s a chance their perimeter-based offensive system remains a focal point in the moves that are soon to be announced.