The Dream Is Dead: Ben Simmons agrees to one-year $3.5 million deal with the Sacramento Kings

Drew Smith
September 4, 2026
Trending
0 Comments

It’s over. After a whole summer of campaigning, hoping, and doing the cap math in our heads, the Ben Simmons reunion dream is dead.

Ben Simmons agreed to a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Sacramento Kings on Friday, and just like that, the vision so many of us had (me) of him coming home to Complete the Process is gone.

Ben Simmons signs with the Sacramento Kings

Just in: Three-time All-Star Ben Simmons has agreed on a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Sacramento Kings, his agents Max Wiepking, Sean Tribe and Ryan Arney tell me and @MarcJSpears. The one-time All-NBA star is back in the NBA for a 10th season after sitting out 2025-26. pic.twitter.com/xj5X7lr3op
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 4, 2026

Let me get this off my chest, because I genuinely believed in this fit. Ben Simmons was the ideal backup center behind Joel Embiid.

A healthy Ben Simmons, a 6-foot-10 point-forward who can guard one through five, run the second unit, and defend at an All-Defensive level, is exactly the kind of piece this loaded Sixers roster could have used.

Slot him behind Embiid, let him orchestrate the bench mob, put him next to LeBron, Maxey, Brown, and Edgecombe, and you’ve got something special. It made too much sense. It was the perfect low-cost, high-upside swing and now some other team gets to take it.

That’s precisely what Ben Simmons is at this point. He’s a high-upside reclamation project who still has years left in what should be his prime.

Apparently the Kings see it and that’s why they moved on him and it’s the same thing we saw when he was healthy and dominating at that Australia national team minicamp in early August.

The talent never left. He just needed his body right, and by all accounts, it finally is.

According to reports, the Timberwolves and Warriors expressed interest that could’ve led to a camp invite, but the Kings were the ONLY team to actually offer him a contract. And nowhere in there do you see the Philadelphia 76ers.

The team he was drafted by, the team he clearly still has a connection to, the team with an obvious need for exactly what he provides, apparently wasn’t the one to bring him home. I know it makes sense, but it hurts my cold dark heart.

The fit was obvious to anyone paying attention and instead, Simmons is heading to a Kings team that finished 22-60 last season, tied for the worst record in the West, that waived DeMar DeRozan and let Russell Westbrook walk, leaving a gaping hole at guard.

He’s going there to be a backup point guard for rookie Darius Acuff Jr. on a team going nowhere fast. Good for him, honestly. If Sacramento is where he feels wanted and gets a real runway, then I’m happy he found a home but man, it should have been here.

Let’s remember who we’re talking about. Ben Simmons was the first overall pick by the Sixers out of LSU in 2016, won Rookie of the Year in 2018, and made an All-Defensive first team in 2020.

For his career, he’s averaged 13.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 7.2 assists, and 1.5 steals across 383 games. When he was right, he was a genuine three-time All-Star and one of the most unique players in the league.

Anyways, Ben Simmons is a Sacramento King, the reunion is officially dead, and I’m left wondering what could have been. The good news is the Sixers are absolutely stacked without him, with a roster built to contend right now. They didn’t need Ben Simmons but they could have used him at a bargain price.