The Portland Trail Blazers will again be rich at the two guard positions this coming season. Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons, Josh Hart, Gary Payton II, Nassir Little, Keon Johnson, Shaedon Sharpe, Didi Louzada and Brandon Williams are all capable of playing at least one of the positions — some much more competently than others.
But it appears that General Manager Joe Cronin has already established the pecking order at the two smaller positions. The franchise has consciously “created a runway” for Anfernee Simons, giving him a four year, $100 million contract after trading away former Portland guards CJ McCollum and Norman Powell in February.