Anfernee Simons’ nontraditional, and successful, route to the NBA

Every year in the NBA draft, there are a few prospects who take on an aura of mystery. They are players who possess obvious talent, but also elude easy analysis, fascinating front offices as much for what is unknown as what is known. Most often, they have a few major question marks, but also possess an impressive amount of ability that puts such question marks on the back burner as teams are won over by their potential.

This year, one of the more fascinating prospects is Anfernee Simons, a 19-year-old guard who, after graduating from high school and reclassifying into the Class of 2018, opted to spend a postgraduate year at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, decommitting from Louisville. Now, instead of attending college in the fall as initially planned, Simons will be in training camp with the Portland Trail Blazers, who selected him with the No. 24 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

The preps-to-pro era ended in the second-round of the 2005 NBA Draft with the drafting of Amir Johnson, who was one of nine players selected that evening who chose to bypass college in order to enter the NBA straight out of high school. That summer, the NBA and the players’ association decided to raise the minimum age limit for draft eligible players. Since the collective bargaining agreement’s 2005 renegotiation, in order to enter into the NBA Draft, players must be 19 years old and at least one year removed from high school.

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The vast majority of high level draft prospects since then have decided to attend college for one season, where they try to impress scouts while also attending classes for a few months before inevitably applying for the draft after the season ends. It’s not an ideal situation for anyone — players are forced to waste time at a school that most have no intention of graduating from and teams are unable to establish any semblance of continuity as their best players come and go quickly. The only one who really benefits is the NCAA, who is able to make money off the unpaid labor of the athletes. It exposes the ideal the NCAA espouses of the student athlete to be pretty much a marketing angle, a sham meant to allow the NCAA to survive, and also make tons of money in the process.

And now, Anfernee Simons, with his reclassification, and subsequent enrollment at IMG has found another way of entering the NBA, one that does not rely upon placing himself under the aegis of the NCAA. He is not the first player to enter the draft without attending college since the age restrictions were imposed, but he is one of a select few. Most notably, Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Mudiay following stellar high school careers, opted to play overseas for a season in Italy and China respectively, before becoming top-10 picks the next year.

While at IMG, Simons played on the academy’s Post-Grad team, playing over 30 games against other prep schools and junior college programs. In his lone season there, he led IMG to a 23-8 record and the 2018 National Prep Championship, averaging over 22 points per game in the process, shooting 54 percent shooting overall, while making 45 percent of his 3s.

Perhaps the primary benefit of attending IMG for NBA prospects, as opposed to enrolling in an NCAA program, is the ability to focus on basketball exclusively. In the NCAA, there are constraints that limit the amount of time a player is allowed to spend working on the court or in the weight room whereas at IMG, no such limitations exist. Also, IMG attempts to have a holistic approach that focuses on the development of the athlete as a person in addition to their skills.

According to IMG basketball coach John Mahoney, the combination of athletic and personal development is what sets IMG apart. Mahoney, who coached at Michigan and West Virginia before joining IMG in 2012, sees working at an academy as a way to get back to the basics of helping kids. “When I started coaching, it was to help kids and teach… but once you got deeper in, it’s not as much teaching — there’s a lot more pulling at you.” Coaching here, Mahoney feels freer to focus on the fundamentals, without having to worry about NCAA restrictions, or other concerns that pull a coach away from the players themselves.

Charles Gooch, the Head of Leadership at IMG, attempts to focus on the athlete’s “natural leadership ability,” by making the athlete aware of how they present themselves with their “words, actions, [and] attitude.” Much of the work Gooch does is not centered in the classroom, but takes place through more casual interactions with players as they go about their day to day lives. In these encounters, he attempts to build “men of character” through development of respect for “self, others, diversity, and women.” What IMG tries to emphasize through these lessons, both formally and informally, Gooch says, is that their athletes are “not just basketball players, not just students — they’re humans.”

IMG also employs as a mental conditioning coach, DJ Andreoli, whose uses the three pillars of “education, application, and support” in order to help athletes understand how much their mental attitudes influence their play. Of course, the focus remains on sports. Even in light of all the other off court elements being honed and developed, all else that’s being emphasized by the various coaches, it all circles back so that the emphasis is still placed “strictly on [the athlete’s] end goal.”

On a pure basketball basis, there are still legitimate concerns about Simons as an NBA prospect — most notably his seeming lack of surety running an offense, and the fact that his body could use additional muscle on his lengthy frame. But one wonders if these would be as worrisome to front offices if he had taken a more conventional path to the NBA. There is a certain bias within NBA circles towards NCAA prospects as teams just don’t seem sure how to evaluate prospects coming to the NBA outside of the college ranks. Why else would Luka Doncic have fallen in the eyes of so many even as he dominates Euroleague?

Simons does show an absolute ton of upside though. Most notably, he can score effortlessly and possesses a very good jump shot. He also has a great amount of athleticism, moving fluidly across the court, creating his own shot with ease. Additionally, his length — Simons possesses a 6-foot-9 wingspan despite standing just over 6-foot-3 — augurs well for his defensive potential.

Despite his obvious talent, Simons still appears to be a bit of a project. Simons is not like some other raw talents, who deceive with their athleticism while lacking any actual skills. However, even Mahoney agrees that Simons would benefit from being drafted by “a team that’s gonna have patience” considering the development still necessary for him to become a good NBA player. Nevertheless, Mahoney qualified his remarks by making sure to emphasize Simons’ athleticism, skill, and shooting abilities. From the moment they started working together, he said it was clear “[Simons] was a high level basketball player.” Other IMG coaches had nothing but good things to say about Simons as they highlighted his composure, his skills as a teammate, and how well he handles himself both on and off the court. Gooch put it well when he referred to Simons as a “rather quiet young man, but a beast on the court.”

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It’s unclear if the NBA’s age restrictions will stay in place long-term. There’s been rumblings that eliminating them may be a part of the upcoming CBA discussions in a few years, but in the interim, attending academies like IMG may be a good stepping stone either to a high level NCAA school or the NBA itself. Mahoney sees IMG as a great place to progress both mentally and physically, giving players a year to catch up with no real drawbacks — “you don’t lose eligibility, you’re gaining experience” — causing him to wonder why top prospects would go to college when options like IMG exist. Perhaps with Simons being a first round pick, others will follow his path, ending the monopoly the NCAA has on American NBA prospects, and giving the players more power to determine their own destiny.