Trail Blazers Training Camp, Day 3: Anfernee Simons is Ready to Lead

It's Simons' time to be the vocal veteran on the rebuilding Blazers, and he's embracing the challenge.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Sometimes during practices, Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups tells his staff not to coach the players and instead assigns one of his players to do it. He'll freeze a play and ask the player if everyone is where they need to be on the defensive side, to make sure they know how to cover for each other.

Anfernee Simons is one of the players who has gotten this responsibility, and it's been another step in his growth into a vocal leader in the post-Damian Lillard era.

Those who have been around Simons since his rookie year and knew him when he barely said a word could be forgiven for being a little shocked at how vocal he's become. Now, at 24, he's one of the "veterans" on a rebuilding team, and the most proven scorer in a very young backcourt.

"Chauncey wants me to push myself to be a vocal leader," Simons said after Thursday's practice. "Saying things that I normally wouldn't say. It's been fun the last couple of days figuring out when to speak up and when to let the coaches do their thing."

Until Lillard was traded a week ago, Simons would always defer, as anyone would when he's on their team. He didn't have to be a leader because Lillard had that covered. In some ways, growing as close to Lillard as he did in their five years together helped prepare Simons for this evolution. But it's been more of an adjustment than he anticipated, naturally being less outspoken than his former backcourt-mate.

"I would say it's a little bit harder," Simons said. "Me and Dame don't have the exact same personality. I'm a lot more naturally quiet than Dame is. I don't want to go fully outside of my character and show my teammates a side of me that's not me. I want to stay authentic to myself as well as pushing myself. Staying between being myself and pushing myself to be more vocal."

If it's possible for a 21 point-per-game scorer on a $100 million contract to be overlooked and lost in the shuffle, that's where Simons has found himself in the conversation around this team this summer. No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson is the shiny new object, widely assumed to be the new face of the franchise post-Lillard. Long-term, maybe he will be. But as it stands right now, Simons is the best player on the team, their most explosive scorer. And after largely being a No. 2 option last year behind Lillard, he's going to be a focal point this season while figuring out how to mesh with Henderson.

"It's always good to have strong shooters and playmakers on both sides of the court," Billups said. "[Simons] is not a point guard where it's like, a consummate pass-first, set-the-table guy. That's not who he is. He's more like a lead guard. But he can read pick-and-rolls and read defenses so much better from the point of attack so much better."

Simons' teammates are responding thus far to the newly talkative version of him.

"A lot of guys are having to be more vocal," Matisse Thybulle said after practice Thursday. "Guys who haven't been vets or haven't had anything close to that role are being thrown into the fire. I've really got to give Ant a shoutout for how he's stepped into it. It's an uncomfortable position to be in, especially for someone as young as him. Even though he's got some years under his belt, he's still so young. He's had to be in this leadership role. Not only you have to show up and play the right way, now he has to say the right things and lead and teach. He's even organizing team events now."

"You can just tell," Billups said. "His voice is so much louder. He has so much confidence. Dame did a great job of raising him to be in a position to one day have to be a lead type of dude. His confidence is at a very, very high level. He's had a great camp."