Mike Gansey for President: Sixers sign Anfernee Simons to a two-year, $12.3 million contract
The Sixers signed Anfernee Simons to a two-year, $12.3 million contract with a player option in the second year on Thursday afternoon, beating out the Warriors, Heat, Nuggets, Mavericks, and Pacers for a 27-year-old combo guard who can do the one thing the Sixers couldn’t do last season.
Mike Gansey is on a generational run right now.
Anfernee Simons can shoot three-pointers at a high volume and actually make them. Simons is a career 38.1 percent shooter from deep who fires up threes at one of the highest rates in the league and is comfortable on both pull-up and catch-and-shoot attempts, and the Sixers ranked 23rd in three-point frequency last season because the roster was constructed by people who apparently didn’t realize that the modern NBA requires players who are willing and able to shoot the basketball from beyond the arc.
Anfernee Simons is a SIXER
The fact that six teams were competing for Anfernee Simons tells you this wasn’t a desperation signing where the Sixers grabbed whatever was left on the free agency scrap heap but a legitimate acquisition of a player who multiple contenders wanted because his skill set addresses one of the most important needs in the modern game.
Anfernee Simons choosing Philadelphia over Golden State, Miami, Denver, Dallas, and Indiana is either a testament to whatever pitch Gansey made about the role he’d play on this team or a reflection of the $12.3 million being the best offer on the table, and honestly I don’t care which one it is because the result is a guard who can space the floor and knock down threes sitting behind Maxey and Edgecombe in a backcourt rotation that desperately needed another reliable perimeter shooter.
Anfernee Simons Helps Beyond The Arc… A Lot
The Sixers’ three-point frequency ranking of 23rd in the league last season was one of the quieter reasons the offense stagnated in the second round against the Knicks because you can’t compete in the modern NBA without spacing the floor consistently from beyond the arc, and having a roster full of guys who either couldn’t shoot threes or wouldn’t attempt them turned every half-court possession into a congested mess where Embiid and George were operating in traffic with no room to work.
The Knicks, who shot nearly 40 percent from three in the playoffs on their way to winning the championship, exploited the Sixers’ spacing issues throughout the series because they knew the perimeter shooters on Philadelphia’s roster weren’t consistent enough threats to punish them for collapsing on Embiid in the post.
Anfernee Simons fixes that problem from the guard position because the man’s entire game is built around generating and making three-point attempts at a rate that forces defenses to respect the perimeter instead of ignoring it.
When Simons is on the floor with Maxey, opposing defenses have to account for two guards who can pull up from 30 feet at any moment, which opens driving lanes, creates space in the post for Embiid, and gives everyone else room to operate in the mid-range.
The spacing implications of adding a 38 percent three-point shooter to a team that ranked 23rd in three-point frequency are significant enough that Simons’ impact might be felt more in what he does to the offense’s overall geometry than in his individual scoring numbers.
The Wrist Injury Is the Only Concern
Simons was traded from the Celtics to the Bulls at last season’s deadline and only played six games for Chicago before aggravating a left wrist fracture in February that ended his season.
A wrist injury for a perimeter shooter is the kind of thing that should give you pause because the shooting touch is directly connected to the wrist mechanics and any lingering issues with the fracture could affect the shot that makes Simons valuable in the first place.
The two-year deal with a player option in the second year is structured in a way that limits the Sixers’ risk because Anfernee Simons can opt out after one season if he stays healthy and plays well enough to command a bigger contract on the open market, and the Sixers can evaluate whether the wrist is fully healed and the shooting percentages are holding before deciding whether they want him for a second year.
At $6.15 million per year for a 27-year-old who averaged 14.9 points for his career and shoots 38 percent from three, the price is reasonable enough that the Sixers aren’t taking on significant financial risk even if the wrist proves to be a lingering issue.
Sixers Guard Rotation Behind Maxey and Edgecombe Has Real Options Now
The Sixers now have Simons and rookie Labaron Philon Jr. at guard behind presumptive starters Maxey and Edgecombe, which gives Nurse actual options for his backcourt rotation instead of the “pray Maxey plays 40 minutes and hope someone else can hold it together when he sits” approach that defined too many games last season.
Anfernee Simons can play alongside Maxey in two-guard lineups that maximize perimeter shooting or he can run the offense when Maxey rests because his 3.2 career assist average tells you he’s capable of facilitating even if playmaking isn’t his primary skill.
Grimes leaving for the Lakers on a four-year deal is a loss of depth but Simons is a better fit for what this team needs because the Sixers’ problem was never a lack of guards but a lack of guards who could shoot from three at a high level, and replacing Grimes’ versatility with Simons’ shooting is a trade-off that favors the Sixers’ specific roster construction needs heading into a season where the spacing around Embiid and George has to be dramatically better than what it was last year.
The roster sits at 14 players once all the moves are official with the regular-season maximum at 15 plus three two-way contracts, which means Gansey still has one roster spot and some two-way slots to fill before training camp.
Whether that final spot goes to a wing, a big, or another guard depends on what happens with the Ben Simmons situation and whatever other moves Gansey has planned for the rest of the summer, but the Simons signing addresses the most obvious need on the roster and gives the Sixers a backcourt rotation that looks significantly more functional than what they ran out last season.
Mike Gansey for President
Simons, Philon at 22 in the draft, and the front office restructuring with Nelson promoted to EVP and Brand out as GM are the early returns from Gansey’s first offseason running the Sixers’ basketball operations, and the direction so far suggests an approach that prioritizes shooting, youth, and financial flexibility over the kind of star-chasing desperation that defined the Morey era and produced exactly zero Conference Finals appearances in five years.
Signing a 38 percent three-point shooter for $6 million a year instead of overpaying for a name brand free agent who doesn’t fit the roster is the kind of smart, need-based roster construction that the Sixers haven’t practiced in years and it’s refreshing to see the front office make a move that addresses a specific weakness rather than grabbing the shiniest object available.
Now go get Ben Simmons and LeBron James and I’ll see you on Broad.
Join The Chase
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