Ben Simmons is back in the NBA. He is not, however, guaranteed a single dollar of the deal he just signed.
Simmons officially joined the Sacramento Kings this week on a one-year contract worth up to $3.5 million. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported Wednesday that the deal is non-guaranteed, and that Simmons earns $1 million if he sticks on Sacramento’s opening night roster.
That structure tells you everything about how the league still views him. The Kings wanted the upside. They did not want the exposure.
Read the number again: $1 million for making the roster, and the rest tied to whatever comes after. This is the kind of contract handed to a training camp flier, not a three-time All-Star and a former No. 1 overall pick. Sacramento built in an exit ramp before Simmons ever put on the jersey.
Honestly, that is the right call. Simmons sat out the entire 2025-26 season. Before that, his last several years were a running catalog of back problems, minutes restrictions and questions about whether he still wanted to play. No front office should be writing guaranteed checks against that resume.
What makes this interesting is that Simmons is still only 30 years old. That is not old for a player whose game was never built on athletic explosion in the first place. His value came from size, passing vision and defensive versatility, and none of those skills require him to be a 25-year-old again.
The Kings did their homework. Simmons drew rave reviews in summer workouts, which is what prompted Sacramento to take the swing at all. He also reportedly turned down interest from two bigger-name teams to sign here, which suggests he was chasing opportunity over prestige.
He should get plenty of it. Sacramento lost Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan this offseason, which leaves the roster thin on experienced ball handling. The Kings are leaning on 24-year-old Nique Clifford and 19-year-old lottery pick Darius Acuff Jr. to carry real minutes. Simmons walks in as the most seasoned initiator on the floor by a wide margin.
That is the version of this signing that works. Put Simmons in a secondary playmaking role, let him run the offense in second units, park him on the opposing team’s best perimeter scorer and stop asking him to be a scoring option. He was a two-time All-Defensive selection for a reason, and that skill set does not disappear just because his jumper never showed up.
The version that does not work is obvious too. If the back flares up in October, Sacramento cuts him and loses almost nothing. That is precisely why the contract was written this way.
Kings fans have already had their fun with it. The team’s welcome message for Simmons got buried in jokes on social media earlier this week, which is what happens when a player becomes a punchline before he becomes a contributor.
None of that noise matters until camp opens later this month. Simmons has to prove he can survive a practice schedule before anyone worries about whether he can survive an 82-game season.
Here is my read: this is a smart, cheap bet by a team that had very little to lose. Sacramento is not a contender. Giving a former All-Star a fully protected roster spot at $3.5 million would have been careless. Giving him a chance to earn it is exactly the right amount of faith.
Simmons has one month to make the Kings glad they bothered. The contract says they are not counting on it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.