Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons is trending downward in The Ringer’s top 100 player rankings for the 2024-25 NBA season.

Bill Simmons, Danny Chau, Zach Kram, Rob Mahoney, Michael Pina, and Justin Verrier of The Ringer update the rankings regularly throughout the season, with the latest update coming on Nov. 20.

Simons placed No. 87, a considerable drop from his No. 78 ranking on Oct. 16. The drop isn’t too surprising, as Simons has gotten off to an uncharacteristically slow offensive start. The seventh-year guard is averaging just 16.3 points per game while shooting 30.7% from 3 in his first 14 appearances this season, after averaging 22.6 points per game and a 38.5% clip from downtown last season.

Alongside the ranking, Mahoney applauded Simons as a “walking bucket” and marksman, but said the 25-year-old is still trying to find his proper role in the NBA.

Let’s start here: Shooting might be the single most important skill in the modern NBA, and Simons is one of the best shooters in the world. That alone makes him a player worth accommodating, even if the particulars of his game don’t always slot cleanly into a lineup. Simons comes from a long line of scoring guards who probably aren’t best suited to run an offense, but deserve a chance to try it on. He has real burst coming around a high screen, and enough juice with the ball in his hands to be more than just a pull-up threat. That’s not something to take for granted; plenty of marksmen hit a hard ceiling because they never really develop the means to create for themselves, but Simons has taken to that part of the job quite comfortably.

Portland—and the NBA more broadly—is just waiting on him to show that he’s more than a rudimentary playmaker. Leading an offense means more than getting yours. Simons can find his spots and put up numbers at volume. Yet it feels telling that he’s markedly more effective playing off the ball, building off a teammate’s pass rather than setting the table himself. That in itself isn’t a problem; if Simons is better off playing the second side, pick up or develop the kind of floor general who can work alongside him. Of course, that guard might also have to be bigger than Simons, who stands at a very point-guard-sized 6-foot-3, and a better defender than Simons, who can’t guard a chair. Perfect fits are hard to come by, even for a natural scorer with one of the smoothest strokes in the game.

Simons looked more like himself in Saturday’s 104-98 win over the Houston Rockets, scoring 25 points and tossing four assists while shooting 50% from the field. Maybe that game can build some momentum and begin a climb for Simons back to better shooting splits.

Elsewhere on The Ringer list, Portland forward Jerami Grant moved up one spot to No. 73. Verrier talked about Grant’s evolution from supplemental role piece on a Denver Nuggets team with championship aspirations to an integral scoring piece on a sub .500 Blazers squad.

Grant was Aaron Gordon before Aaron Gordon—a rangy, defensive-focused big wing who could fill the gaps between your superstars. The Nuggets had him in that very role for one whole season and tried to re-sign him to reprise it. But Grant had other plans for his career. He signed with Detroit and built himself into a 20-points-per-game scorer. The Trail Blazers version is a blend of both, but without a superstar to play off of, Grant has become necessary rather than supplementary, which has benefited his bank account but not his team’s bottom line.

Branching out has turned Grant into a more versatile player. He’s been a plus shooter in Portland, drilling 40 percent of his triples at a decent volume and making over 80 percent of the five or six free throws he earns a game. And while he doesn’t rove as much defensively anymore, he can provide great rim protection from the forward spot while guarding wings on the ball—although last season, playing on a 21-win team, was hardly a showcase of those attributes. Ultimately, he’s a finesse version of Gordon: He won’t get in the mud for rebounds or putbacks, but he’s a dependable spacer who can put it on the deck and create for himself.

Blazer’s Edge community, do you agree with Grant and Simons’ placements on the list? Do you think other Blazers deserve mention? Or did the Ringer get it all mostly right?