Ben Simmons isn’t LeBron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo. He’s not even Anfernee Simons or Rui Hachimura. Yet the former Philadelphia 76ers star does signify another player who has rejected the Golden State Warriors this offseason.
Simmons signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Sacramento Kings on Friday, turning down what was presumably a training camp invite from the Warriors who did have interest in the former number one overall pick.
Ben Simmons hands Warriors another free agency rejection
No one can begrudge Simmons for taking the guaranteed contract, rather than battle for a main roster spot with Golden State where he would have had to impress to beat out Brandon Williams, Dalen Terry and others as Mike Dunleavy Jr. finalizes the training camp roster over the coming weeks.
Perhaps this was simply out of the Warriors’ hands to some degree, but it’s another instance where they couldn’t close on a player they had interest in. Losing out to the Kings of all teams makes it arguably more embarrassing, albeit perhaps that was behind Simmons’ decision as he sees a more open path to a legitimate rotation role on a rebuilding team.
At the same time, with or without Simmons Sacramento are expected to be a bottom five and more likely than not a bottom three team in the Western Conference. The Warriors, meanwhile, will be pushing strongly for a return to the playoffs even after an underwhelming offseason.
The idea of helping Stephen Curry and Golden State back to the playoffs would have done significantly more for Simmons and his desire to rebuild his value and reputation, as opposed to being off broadway on an irrelevant Sacramento team.
It’s not as if Simmons is a young player who can afford to build with a young Kings team either. If he wants to have playoff impact before his career is out, the 30-year-old would have been far better served heading to the reigning champion New York Knicks or the Minnesota Timberwolves who reportedly both also had interest in Simmons.
Warriors miss out on another player of interest
Missing out on Simmons may not have any real impact, but it just adds to the list of players who’ve turned down interest from the Warriors in recent years, including a fairly extensive number of players this calendar year since before the February mid-season trade deadline.
The Warriors had interest in Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard before the deadline. They weren’t really a suitor for either player this offseason, largely because Antetokounmpo wanted the Miami Heat and Leonard wanted the Toronto Raptors. Golden State pursued James, Simons and Hachimura as free agents, but failed to have any success there either.
Now we can add Simmons that list. While he's likely to make the least impact of the players mentioned, it will at least be worth monitoring to see if he can turn his career around at the Kings.
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