76ers Sign Anfernee Simons to $12.3 Million Deal. Philly’s Free Agency Just Kept Rolling.
The Philadelphia 76ers are not done shopping. One day after acquiring Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia landed another rotation piece by signing free agent guard Anfernee Simons to a two-year, $12.3 million contract, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Simons has a player option in the second year, which gives him a chance to re-enter free agency after next season if his stock rises. He picked Philly over other suitors because he believes the fit works.
It should. Simons averaged 14.3 points per game last year in a split season between the Celtics and Chicago Bulls. He is a career 38.1 percent three-point shooter, which is exactly the profile a Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown roster needs. Shooting has always been the Sixers’ Achilles heel. They just got better at it for a bargain.
Simons’ best year was 2023-24, when he averaged a career-high 22.6 points per game across 46 appearances with the Portland Trail Blazers. That was the version of Simons who looked like a legitimate primary scorer. The version Philly just got is the discount version, but for $12 million on a two-year commitment, the risk is negligible.
The Sixers now have a starting lineup that looks something like this: Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, Anfernee Simons or Kelly Oubre, Paul Reed, and Joel Embiid. That is a top-five offensive team in the East on paper, assuming Embiid can stay on the floor. That is the assumption that has burned every version of Philly for the last decade.
Daryl Morey deserves credit here. He gambled on the Brown trade and it opened the door for a wave of free agents. Simons is the second veteran to bet on the Sixers in the last 48 hours. This roster suddenly has real shot-making at every position, and the rest of the East should notice.
The Celtics, meanwhile, look worse by the day. Their Jaylen Brown return package is aging by the minute while Philly builds around him. Boston fans are watching this in real time and it is not going well.
Simons is only 27 years old. He has already been a starter on a rebuilding team. Now he gets to be a bench weapon on a contender. That is the kind of career pivot that can unlock a player. If Nick Nurse can convince him to attack closeouts and defend at even league-average level, this is a steal.
The Sixers are all-in for the 2026-27 season. This is what all-in looks like when it works. A trade for a top-15 player, a veteran shooter for the taxpayer midlevel, and a roster that suddenly looks like the biggest threat to the Knicks in the East.
Philadelphia is not the team you laugh at anymore. They are the team you circle on the calendar.
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.
