Earlier this offseason, Ben Simmons hinted that he was eyeing a return to the NBA after taking the 2025-26 season off. He told Clay Skipper of Men’s Health that he didn’t “have a plan on where” he would sign, before adding, “Maybe I’ll go back to Philly.”
He is not going back to Philly. Instead, he agreed to a one-year, veteran-minimum contract with the Sacramento Kings on Friday, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
So, why did the Sixers let the Kings beat them to the punch? Aside from, well, you know…
For one, they didn’t have the money to sign Simmons—or almost anyone else, for that matter.
The Sixers hard-capped themselves at the $209.0 million first apron in basically every possible way this offseason. After their flood of offseason moves, they’re roughly $1.8 million below that line at the moment.
Since Simmons is signing a one-year, veteran-minimum deal, he’ll have a cap hit of only $2.4 million—the same as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope—despite earning $3.5 million in actual salary. Still, signing him would have pushed the Sixers roughly $600,000 above the first apron, so they would have needed to clear some salary first.
Even if the Sixers did have the financial wiggle room to sign Simmons, though, it’s hard to imagine that’s how they would have spent their last open roster spot.
Since his infamous blunder against the Atlanta Hawks in the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Simmons has played a total of 108 games over the past half-decade. The Sixers already have one gigantic injury question mark in Joel Embiid. The last thing they need is to fill their last open roster spot with an even bigger one.
While the Sixers could use another rangy defensive forward, it’s unclear whether Simmons is still the type of defender who earned a pair of All-Defense first-team nods earlier in his career. We haven’t seen that version of him in a half-decade.
The Sixers used Simmons as an oversized point guard back in his heyday, but in case you weren’t aware, they landed another jumbo playmaker this offseason. Some guy named LeBron James? He’s apparently pretty good. Still need to watch the tape to confirm.
Between James, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and even rookie Labaron Philon Jr., the Sixers suddenly have more ball-handling and playmaking than they’ve had in years. Heading into the season, backup center looks like their biggest question mark. That may be the best use of their remaining open roster spot once we get into the season.
We also still have no idea what this year’s Sixers will look like—and more importantly, what their strengths and weaknesses will be. They should be a dynamo in transition, and they have the talent on paper to boast one of the league’s best offenses, but that’s all theoretical right now. As Jaylen Brown would say, they need to roll the ball out to figure out what their biggest needs are.
Once they’ve had a few months to suss that out, they can look to address those holes either at the trade deadline or on the buyout market. As weird as this is to say, they could be one of the premier destinations for ring-chasers later this year. They might have their pick of the litter on the in-season free-agent market. Would it be worth giving that up in the hopes that Simmons isn’t broken anymore?
If Simmons stays healthy and looks like his former self, perhaps the Sixers revisit acquiring him at the trade deadline. Jabari Walker and/or Justin Edwards are easy salary matches, if so. But for now, they’ll just have to watch from afar to see how Simmons’ comeback tour goes in Sacramento.
Godspeed, Kings fans. You’re always welcome to take refuge here.
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