The NBA offseason doesn’t officially arrive until Ben Simmons posts a shirtless workout video on Instagram. If Monday is any indication, we might be moving closer to the start of the official start of the offseason.
In an interview with Clay Skipper of Men’s Health, Simmons spoke about the back injury that caused his NBA career to go off the rails and his desire to rejoin the league, perhaps as early as this coming season.
“I plan on getting as strong as I can physically, getting my ass on the court,
and then the team realizing that my abilities will be needed,” Simmons told Skipper. “I don’t have a plan on where.”
Simmons added: “Maybe I’ll go back to Philly. Miami would be nice. And not because it’s Miami—I like Erik Spoelstra, I like the Heat, I like their organization, I like the culture.”
The thought of Simmons returning to the Sixers a few years after he forced his way off the team in one of the nastiest player-team splits in recent memory almost borders on parody. But if his back is finally healthy and he’s willing to settle for a veteran-minimum contract, there would be some logic to it from the Sixers’ perspective.
Why a Simmons reunion could work
If Simmons does return to the NBA—whether it’s on the Sixers or another team—no one should be expecting him to regain his pre-injury form.
Prior to his initial back injury in 2020, Simmons won Rookie of the Year in 2017-18 and made the All-Star team in each of the next three seasons. He also earned a spot on the All-NBA third team in 2019-20, had back-to-back spots on the All-Defense first team and finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2019-20 and second the following season.
Simmons missed the entire 2021-22 campaign amidst his holdout from the Sixers and a back injury that flared up upon his arrival on the Brooklyn Nets. Over the ensuing three seasons, Simmons averaged only 5.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 23.9 minutes per game. That was a far cry from the 15.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.7 assists that he averaged in 33.9 minutes per game across his first four active seasons.
Granted, the Sixers wouldn’t need or expect Simmons to put up his pre-injury numbers. Between Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Paul George and Joel Embiid, they have plenty of high-volume scorers. They just need to find gap-fillers now.
If healthy, Simmons has that type of potential for them. He could help run the offense, especially in transition, and defend multiple positions.
At this point, Simmons is never likely to develop a reliable jump shot. But during an appearance on the Maxey on the Mic podcast in 2023, Embiid told Maxey that he didn’t believe Simmons needed a jumper because “he was so good, he’s just a monster physically.”
“Like, someone is fricking 6’11”, just running up and down the floor faster than whatever,” Embiid added. “… I never believed that he actually needed a jumper. I just believed that if he could find a way to get his free throws to 75-80%, that would have changed everything. Because if you think about it, if he believed that he could make shots, what would he do? He would keep attacking, attacking, attacking, and never stopping. And then what would the defense have to do? He was already such a great playmaker.”
Maxey has made major strides as a floor general over the past few seasons, and Edgecombe showed promising flashes in that regard as a rookie as well. However, neither of them is a natural, “pure” point guard like Chris Paul. The Sixers could use additional ball-handling and playmaking, even after the addition of Labaron Philon Jr. at No. 22 in this year’s draft.
Simmo the Savage could help in that regard. However, there’s reason to be dubious of a reunion as well.
Why a Simmons reunion isn’t likely
Simmons told Skipper that ever since he suffered a pinched nerve in 2020, he’s been dealing with “debilitating flare-ups in his lower back and legs.”
“Simmons compares his injury to charging your phone with a finicky cord—any sudden movement or change to the angle and you’ve lost the juice,” Skipper added. “To further complicate matters, the pain and discomfort can linger long after the tissue has been repaired. Healing requires an entire nervous system reset.”
It seems as though he’s in a better place physically, but who’s to say that’ll hold up over the grind of an 82-game regular season, even in a reduced role? After all, it’s not like he was playing starters’ minutes with the Brooklyn Nets or Los Angeles Clippers before he took this past season off.
Given Embiid and George’s lengthy injury histories, the Sixers can’t afford to burn many more roster spots on oft-injured players. If Embiid, George and Simmons were all sidelined simultaneously, that’s a recipe for Maxey and Edgecombe to play an unsustainable minutes load for another season.
Simmons doesn’t seem to have a ton of mental baggage about his time in Philly—in fact, he joked with Skipper about his infamous passed-up shot in the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals—but that’s only one part of the equation in whether to re-sign him. His health is a far bigger variable.
“Because Simmons’ injury involved nerves, he often had shooting pain in his glute and down his leg,” Skipper wrote. “He says he felt so fragile that oftentimes he had to change how he breathed. I ask if he can give me an example of something he could do easily before the injury that became difficult after it. He laughs at the absurdity of it. ‘Go and get a rebound. Dunk the ball. Guard. Play defense. Be physical. Everything you need to be a basketball player. It felt like I was just kinda out there as a body.'”
It’s great to hear that Simmons is feeling closer to his former self these days. No matter how frustrating his trade request and ensuing holdout was, no one should root for a player to develop a life-altering injury. Even if Simmons’ NBA return doesn’t materialize and he has to stick to sportfishing, at least he’s healthy enough to no longer be in chronic pain.
If Simmons is healthy enough to resume his NBA career, he’d be the type of low-risk, high-reward swing that teams in the Sixers’ position need to take… provided that he’s willing to sign a veteran-minimum contract, that is. The Sixers should not consider giving him the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (or even the taxpayer MLE) or the bi-annual exception. But this past season, the Sixers spent roster spots on Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon, who combined to play 192 minutes for them. That’s a low bar for even Simmons to clear.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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