Zavier Simpson Is Probably Due A Return To The NBA

Contrary to popular perception, there exists no such thing as a mid-season sign-by date in the NBA. Players can be signed at any point up to and including the last day of the regular season.

The confusion around there potentially being such a date stems from a misunderstanding of the relevance of 1st March in the NBA’s calendar. That date represents a waive-by date, rather than a sign-by date; put simply, if a player is on an NBA roster by the close of business on 1st March, that team is the only one they can play for in the postseason. But there is no date by which players must be signed to be eligible for the NBA playoffs, other than the final day of the regular season (i.e. before they start). And if a team is lottery-bound, that point is moot anyway.

Players can therefore be signed in March and April, then, and they often are. These past two weeks alone, Kobi Simmons, Moses Brown, DaQuan Jeffries, Jay Scrubb, Gabe York, a much-improved Luka Samanic, Xavier Sneed, D.J. Augustin, Jarrell Brantley, Eugene Omoruyi, Shaq Harrison and Skylar Mays have all signed back into the NBA, and in all but two of those cases (Augustin and Brantley), the players concerned were coming from the G-League.

Perhaps, though, there is room for one more.

Michigan Wolverines graduate Zavier Simpson has long had NBA interest, and also has some NBA experience. Down the stretch of the 2021-22 season, the ragtag and thoroughly uncompetitive Oklahoma City Thunder called him up from their affiliate, the Blue, with whom he had spent the majority of the previous two seasons, and not just played him in the final four games of the year, but started him. Across those four contests, Simpson averaged 11.0 points and 7.3 assists per game, and did a fairly commendable job of making a unit that looked like they had never played together – because they hadn’t – into a passable NBA team.

Making others better is the core of Simpson’s game. He is a pass-first point guard, and one who really throws a mean hook pass – in the pick-and-roll, he is always probing, hitting spotters and cutters, and looking for a better shooting option than himself at all times.

More impressive than his hook passes, though, are his hook shots. This is not something you would normally say about a 6’0 point guard – not perhaps since the days of Mark Jackson’s sort-of-floater-sort-of-hook attempts has such a shot been a staple of one so small at these high levels. Yet Simpson has, bizarrely, made something of a name and career for himself for dropping hooks from the edge of the lane, like a man a foot taller than him 25 years ago might have done.

Of course, Simpson’s NBA candidacy today, just as it was this time last year when the Thunder called him up, is not based on a novelty. With averages on the G-League season of 16.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game for the Orlando Magic’s affiliate team, Lakeland, on a much-improved true shooting percentage of .611%, he has put himself towards the top of the ball-handlers call-up list.

Simpson’s size, though, is also what is keeping him out of the league. One so small will only ever be a one-position defender, and while he has good hands and applies a lot of pressure on opposing point guards, he offers little to no discouragement when switched onto someone bigger.

Similarly, although his three-point shooting has improved to 47.4% this season, it comes on a limited number of shot attempts, and it is hard to find a shot profile for Simpson against NBA defences that will made him a replacement-level offensive player. Just as this was a problem for players such as Phil Pressey before him, the fact that Simpson is not an elite shooter or athlete is going to only compound the size disadvantage; as fun and occasionally useful as the hook shots are, they will still represent a win for the defence were he to take them in an NBA game. And if he does not take them in NBA games, then his limited package becomes even more so.

Nevertheless, this is the final week of the NBA regular season. This is the time for the teams that know they will not win the title this season – which is most of them – to try out potential young pieces. With his game management, excellent passing ability, patience and vision, Simpson has a pure point guard’s game, and he has put in the production at the level directly below the NBA that few others can rival. And if during his audition he also adds some novelty value, that can only be an added bonus.