Report: Blazers Not Interested in Trading Anfernee Simons Ahead of 2023 NBA Deadline

Don't expect the Portland Trail Blazers to trade Anfernee Simons ahead of Thursday's deadline.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst and Zach Lowe discussed such a notion during Monday's The Hoop Collective podcast (1:08:45), and the latter said the Trail Blazers "love Simons. He's their guy. He's the bridge to the future."

Windhorst added that "it sounds like the Blazers are trying to buy."

It is notable that Portland apparently plans to buy because it is anything but a surefire championship contender.

It sits in 11th place in the Western Conference standings at 26-27 and is a half-game behind the Utah Jazz for the final spot in the play-in tournament. While the play-in tournament or playoffs is not an unrealistic goal, it is difficult to envision this team making a deep postseason run barring significant additions.

Yet even a selling team may look to hold onto Simons considering he is just 23 years old and likely a building block for the organization for the foreseeable future.

The Trail Blazers selected him with a first-round pick in 2018, and he is in the middle of a breakout season in 2022-23 after demonstrating consistent improvement across his first five campaigns in the league.

The guard is averaging 22 points, 4.1 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game while shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from deep. He is a career 39.1 percent shooter from three-point range, which plays well alongside Damian Lillard given the amount of defenders the seven-time All-Star typically draws.

Portland traded CJ McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans last season, which created far more playing time for Simons.

He has capitalized on that expanded role this season and is apparently in the team's long-term plans as more than just a potential trade target for others.