#Keep it simple simon full

When I asked about Simons’ recent improvement in his assist-to-turnover ratio, Nurkic got wide-eyed.

#Keep it simple simon full

It’s why Nurkić was full of playful quips late Monday when the subject was Simons. Instead, Simons has been more of a conscientious caretaker of the ball, which right now is at or near the top of the Blazers’ priorities. There hasn’t been any LaMelo Ball flair or Luka Dončić vision to Simons’ uptick in assists. And on Monday, his seven assists and one turnover were complemented by 21 points, including a 3-pointer with 34.4 seconds left that broke a tie at 121. Earlier in the month, in a loss to Orlando, he had seven assists and one turnover. Last week against Utah, he had a season-high nine assists and three turnovers. In the last three weeks, there have been some notable games. So I shared that with him and I think he is doing a really good job of playing simple.” “It actually made the offense flow better, the plays flow better, and I stopped turning the ball over. The way I best worked on it was as soon as I saw the open guy, I passed it to him.

“And I explained one time how I had a really bad habit when I was a rookie of driving and jumping into the air and passing and turning it over. “As a young player, I know how fast the game can be moving,” Billups said. Billups could relate from early in his 17-year playing career, and he said he told Simons in his office about how he often got himself in trouble as a rookie. Billups said he felt Simons would complicate matters by overthinking situations or trying to make something out of nothing. Most important is Simons isn’t stopping to think when he moves the ball. Last year, the team required him to score a lot of points, and we still require him to score a lot of points, but I think he has adjusted and is learning what he needs to do to make us better. “I think he’s just making the right plays,” Lillard said.Īdded Jerami Grant: “He’s growing. Those aren’t eye-popping numbers, but for a guy who entered the season averaging 2.0 assists a game over his career, it’s been enough for his teammates to take notice.

In his last 11 games of the month, Simons averaged 4.5 assists a game and 2.0 turnovers. “So I told him to make it very, very simple: When you see a guy in front of you, just (pass) it.”

“I saw him in games thinking so much, being indecisive, not knowing when to play-make, when to pass, when to (shoot),” Billups said. And Simons was among the most prolific and most egregious when it came to coughing up the ball. They had just returned from a three-game trip when they had 18, 18 and 24 turnovers. See, when Billups called Simons into his office that day to check in, the Blazers were one of the worst teams in the NBA at taking care of the ball. “He’s just making the simple play,” Billups said. But equally as important to the win, and the Blazers’ long-term trajectory, was an ever-so-subtle change from Simons that derived from that meeting with Billups. Sure, Damian Lillard will get the headlines for his 42 points, and it was important that Josh Hart (nine points, 12 rebounds, five assists) and Jusuf Nurkić (12 points, five rebounds) returned from injury. In the course of that meeting, Billups drove home a point to Simons that is starting to take form, a point that was underscored by Simons’ seven assists and one turnover in Monday’s 129-125 win over Atlanta.