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From Paid Tryout to Rotation Spark, Jonathon Simmons Has Earned His Spurs Spot
- Updated: October 27, 2016
SAN ANTONIO — The list of astonishments that played out in Tuesday’s San Antonio Spurs-Golden State Warriors game before a sold-out Oracle Arena crowd and a TNT TV audience began with the outcome: a San Antonio win. Also included? The extent of the Spurs’ 129-100 domination of the Western Conference’s supposed superteam.
But if you’re looking for absolute shock and awe, there was this: Jonathan Simmons’ posterization of JaVale McGee that beat the final buzzer and put an exclamation point on his career performance.
“Are you kidding me?” TNT analyst Reggie Miller said as the 6’6″ Simmons threw down a monster jam in the face of the 7’0″ McGee, whose only real skill through eight uneven seasons has been an ability to protect the rim. “Give that young man the game ball right now.”
Miller is given to hyperbole, but suggesting that Simmons was the hero of the Spurs’ stunning upset was within the realm of possibility—even with Kawhi Leonard scoring a career-high 35 points and getting five steals.
The Spurs needed something special to upset the Warriors on the court where they won their first 36 games last season.
When head coach Gregg Popovich learned that guard Danny Green would miss the opener with a strained left quadriceps, he had to choose between Simmons and third-year swingman Kyle Anderson to take Green’s starting spot, which included defensive duty against Klay Thompson.
Anderson, the Spurs’ first-round pick in 2014, got the nod because he had appeared in 78 games last season, 11 times as a starter. Furthermore, he had spent some time defending Kevin Durant, the Warriors’ prized free-agent acquisition, during San Antonio’s Western Conference Semifinal series against Oklahoma City without embarrassing himself.
Simmons had played in only 55 games as a rookie and logged just 26 minutes in the Spurs’ 10-game playoff run. He never got off the bench in the Thunder series. Plus, he had missed the last preseason game with a mystery injury Popovich described as “something that’s sore.”
Anderson played the first seven minutes and 39 seconds of the first quarter. When Simmons finally replaced him, the starter had not dented the box score in any category and the Spurs trailed 16-12.
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