OKC Thunder Trade Target: Jonathon Simmons

Cons

Poor Three-Point Shooter

The NBA is leaning heavily toward the three-point shot with only a handful of teams trying to buck the trend. Oklahoma City are 15th in attempts (29.1) but rank 24th in percentage (35.3). The Thunder are not a good three point shooting team.

Adding Simmons to a roster skinny on three-point shooting won’t help Oklahoma City’s cause. He is a career 32.1 percent shooter from range but is only connecting 31.9 percent of his attempts this season. Teams are likely to sag off him making spacing an issue.

Verdict

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

Simmons offers OKC more than just defense. While his game is largely predicated on physical play and hustle, he brings an offensive game yet to be fully realized. He uses screens well, takes his time and finds the open man when it presents itself. With Felton only signed through to the end of this season, Simmons also offers OKC a future ball handler.

His style of play fits seamlessly alongside PG13. Simmons tenacity and quickness allows him to stay with the best of guards. Despite being in just his third season, he possesses a decent amount of post-season playoff experience. As I alluded to earlier, Popovich increased Simmons playing time after Leonard went down and he did a superb job on both ends.

The Orlando Magic are a franchise is disarray and headed for another rebuild effort. With teams likely to overlook Simmons, Oklahoma City could easily acquire him for cheap.

All stats courtesy of ESPN.com