DALLAS — On the court, Anfernee Simons is a bucket. A constant threat to catch fire from beyond the three-point line. And thanks to tireless work, his defense rapidly improved, too.
But sometimes, business has to be business.
The Boston Celtics traded Simons to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night, just hours before their game in Dallas. The deal has yet to be made official, but Boston will reportedly be receiving Nikola Vucevic.
Vucevic will provide them with an extra body in the frontcourt, but perhaps the most notable upside for Boston is the financial flexibility. The move puts them below the first apron, which opens up a lot more opportunities for them to improve this summer.
Still, the Celtics didn’t just lose Simons’ three-point shooting. They didn’t just lose his defense, his ball-handling, or his playmaking. They lost the person.
“First of all, he's just an awesome dude,” Luka Garza told BostonSportsJournal.com before tip-off in Dallas on Tuesday night. “Just a high-character guy who showed up and put his work in every day.
“I think, on the floor, was a guy that I really enjoyed playing with. Obviously, setting screens for him, getting him open, just kind of letting him work and just seeing what he can do, especially on the offensive end. So, it was a lot of fun in our time together. And he's just a great dude. I wish him all the best.”
When Simons joined the Celtics, uncertainty followed. He was traded by the Portland Trail Blazers in the Jrue Holiday deal this past summer, but speculation ran rampant regarding if Boston would move him before the start of the year.
They didn’t. And there were some bumps along the road.
Defensively, Simons didn’t fit in at first. He needed time to adapt. But once he found a rhythm, largely thanks to his work with assistant coach Ross McMains, he carved out a consistent place in the every-night rotation.
The Celtics made Simons feel at home in Boston.
"The community has been very welcoming of me, and everybody's been trying to do their best to make me feel comfortable in this community," Simons said at the Celtics' 'Fit for a Cause' launch event on January 29. "I've been feeling very comfortable. Like I said before, it feels like I've been here longer than I actually have been here. And so, it's just a family-type organization, and it feels very comforting when you come into a new situation, and everybody's wrapping their arms around you and making you feel welcome.
Now, those same now-former teammates who made Simons feel at home are sad to see him go.
“Anfernee has all the respect in the world from me,” Jaylen Brown said post-game on Tuesday. “It's a business, but there's a human aspect to it. And since he's been here, he's contributed to winning. He's won us some games. He's just a great, great person, great kid, on and off the floor. Just humble. I hope he gets everything that he's looking for. Just because he just fit right in with his group of guys in our locker room.
“He could have had different thoughts, and thought differently, and his energy could have been different. Man, he was a great teammate and did everything he needed to do, that we asked him, and more, and contributed to winning. So, Anfernee has all the respect in the world from me, and I hope he gets everything he deserves.”
Boston is used to losing teammates at this point. This past summer prepared them for that. Obviously, the Holiday trade brought Simons to Boston, but that wasn’t their only move.
Unfortunately, teammates leaving never gets easier.
“I love Ant,” said Payton Pritchard. “When you build a bond with teammates, it's tough to see them leave. The Al Horford, the Jrue Holiday, Luke [Kornet], KP [Kristaps Porzingis], now Anfernee. You definitely miss them.”
But when they come back as an opponent, that love has to be pushed to the side.
“It's part of the part of the business, so you wish him well, and then, when you see him, you gotta go at him,” Pritchard said.
Simons joins a packed guard room in Chicago. Josh Giddey, Coby White, Tre Jones, and Ayo Dosunmu were already in place, and they added Mike Conley and Jaden Ivey in an earlier trade on Tuesday afternoon. (Reports have indicated that Conley, at the very least, won’t stick around in Chicago.)
Meanwhile, Vucevic will give Joe Mazzulla a new option to pair alongside Garza and current starter Neemias Queta. And in a center room where screening is king, Vucevic should have a chance to fit right in.
“It's huge, because it's just kind of how we create advantages based on what the other team's trying to do,” Garza told BSJ regarding the importance of screening. “We've seen a lot of bigs in up-to-touch or playing back in a drop, and there's a lot of different things that kind of happen, or different things that have to go through your mind when you're going into screens against different coverages.
“And especially the way we play, when we try to get isos and against the switches or whatever. It's a super important part of the game for us.”
For Boston, more deals may be on the horizon. Perhaps not anything as roster-altering as the Simons-Vucevic swap, but there may be more end-of-the-bench movement to come.
It’s something they’ve prepared for, and with the obvious disappointment of losing a friend in the locker room, Mazzulla has made sure to cultivate the human side of a relatively ruthless business.
“Honestly, I think most coaches that I've been around pretty much avoid talking about it,” Garza said. “Joe kind of said something today, just understanding that we're all humans, and it's a business, but at the same time, he understands what we're all going through and stuff, which, that meant a lot, but for the most part, it's kind of been more, don't say anything about it. Control what you can control.”
The NBA is all about basketball. But sometimes, the drama of it all takes center stage. Simons spent months finding his footing, helping the Celtics rise to a top-three team in the Eastern Conference.
Now, he’s a Bull.
Business is business. And business isn’t always fun.
“It's tough, you know, because you never know what's going to happen,” Brown said. “This is this league is infamous for crazy things potentially happening, and stuff like that. So, you just stay poised. You let your guys know, you let the fans know, whatever happens, everything's going to be all right. Our season, in itself, is an example of how we handled adversity. Just how we've carried ourselves, even in the midst of uncertainty.
“So, no different than now. Trade deadline, some things that become uncertain, but how you handle, how you carry yourself, is important. So, I think our guys understand that, I think our locker room understands that, and apart from being in a business, we recognize that we are also human beings. So, I wish Anfernee the best.”