Ben Simmons began a week of training with Australia’s Boomers in Melbourne on Monday, and NBA teams are watching closely.
The three-time All-Star paid his own way to the player-led national team mini-camp in Port Melbourne, training alongside Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels.
Simmons has not played an NBA game since the 2024-25 season, when 51 quiet appearances for Brooklyn and the Clippers produced 5.0 points a night. Back trouble had already wrecked the four years before that.
But this is a player who arrived in the league with Magic Johnson and LeBron James comparisons attached, and the idea that he has nothing left to offer at 30 feels mistaken. How about a refresher on just how impactful Simmons was in his (far-too-short) prime.
The rise of Ben Simmons in Philadelphia
At LSU, Simmons averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists as a freshman and was named a consensus first-team All-American. He went first overall in 2016, then missed his entire first NBA season with a foot injury.
The wait was worth it. He started all 81 games in 2017-18 and averaged 15.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.7 steals.
He posted 12 triple-doubles — the second most by any rookie in league history, behind only Oscar Robertson’s 26 — and 38 double-doubles, when no other rookie that season managed more than 17.
Philadelphia finished 52-30, third best in the East, and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2012. Simmons was Rookie of the Year, and the debate was over long before the vote.
His progression was steady over the next couple of years, but then he exploded on the defensive end. He led the NBA in steals in 2019-20 and made All-Defensive First Team in his first year on the ballot.
A year on, he finished runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year. He and Rudy Gobert were the only players named on all 100 First Team ballots. Philadelphia posted the league’s second-best defensive rating, one spot ahead of Gobert’s Jazz, but the Frenchman came away with the award.
Atlanta, and everything after
The 2021 playoffs is where it all fell apart. Philadelphia were the top seed in the East and lost a seven-game series to Atlanta, with Simmons shooting 34.2 percent from the free-throw line across that postseason and passing up an open dunk late in Game 7.
He never played for the 76ers again. A holdout wiped out his 2021-22 season before a trade to Brooklyn in the James Harden deal, and by then, a persistent back problem meant he wasn’t the same player physically. Mentally, it was even worse.
42 games in 2022-23. 15 the year after. 51 across two teams in 2024-25, most of them forgettable. Nothing in that stretch argues he is still a starter.
Why someone should still make the call
Switchable 6-foot-10 defenders who rebound, run the floor and initiate the offense do not fall out of fashion. Simmons at his best did not need a jumper to be worth playing.
The back is the honest caveat and there is no dressing it up.
But the signals are good.
Marc Spears reported that Simmons will train this week with no restrictions, and Arizona State assistant David Patrick, his godfather, says the athleticism has returned.
Several NBA teams have already made contact, and Simmons is open to a veteran minimum.
He also has an idea of where he wants to be. Speaking to Men’s Health in an interview, Simmons said: “Maybe I’ll go back to Philly.” He flagged Miami as the other option, pointing to Erik Spoelstra and the culture there.
At the minimum, for a contender that needs a defender able to switch onto anyone on the floor and push the ball in transition, this is a cheap swing worth taking.
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