Ant is easily capable of eclipsing Dame. He's significantly taller, he's got better reach, he shoots better. Come on. Give him some credit and build him up and watch him fly.
The kid is just coming into his "I'm ready to rock" phase.
LOL
the "
kid" will turn 26 in 4 months. 26 is the average age of an NBA player. Simons isn't a kid anymore. According to combine measurements, Simons is a half inch taller than Dame with a 3/4" advantage in reach. That ain't much
he's more than halfway thru his 7th season; this is his 4th season as a starter, and in the last 2 seasons, he's had a completely open runway to launch his career and "
easily eclipse Dame". He hasn't even come anywhere close to the zip-code that is a couple of zip-codes away from where Dame was in his prime. And as poor as Dame was/is at defense, Simons is quite a bit worse
* by the way, the idea that Ant "
shoots better"?....he has a career TS% of .565; Dame's mark is .590. Ant's best mark as a starter is .593; Dame's best is .645
* Ant's career PER is 13.8 and his best is 15.9; 14.7 this season (
NBA average is 15.0). Dame career PER is 22.3 and his best is 26.9
* Ant's career assist rate is 19.1 and his best is 26.7. Dame has beat Ant's best in 12 seasons and his career mark is 30.7
* Ant's career winshare/48 is .054 and his best is .078 (
NBA average is .100). Dame's career mark is .175
* Ant's career BPM is -1.3 and his best is 0.2, the only season he wasn't a net negative; Dame's career mark +4.6 and his best is +7.5
I remember hearing similar crap constantly about how CJ could end up better than Dame; how CJ would be an all-star if he only got away from Dame's shadow and had his own team. CJ got away to another team but he's never been an all-star and will never be one. But CJ has been better than Simons. Simons will have "
eclipse" CJ before he sets his sights on Dame, and the clock is ticking