Ben Simmons Angling for NBA Comeback: How Real Is It and Which Teams Could Be Interested?

Ben Simmons has the NBA on his mind after sitting out the last season to recover from injury. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Ben Simmons’s name has mostly been in headlines for fishing-related reasons in the last year. But that changed over the weekend.

Reports emerged late on Sunday night that Simmons, the No. 1 pick of the 2016 draft, has his sights set on an NBA comeback. The former 76ers guard was last with the Clippers, playing the last part of the 2024–25 season in Los Angeles and appearing in a few playoff games before going unsigned that offseason. He hasn’t made a peep in the basketball world since. Simmons did buy a controlling stake in a championship-winning fishing team, the South Florida Sails of the Sports Fishing Championship, which led to an understandable assumption that his basketball career was over; there are few activities that scream retirement more than buying a fishing team.

But Simmons isn’t done. ESPN’s Andscape reported he was going to be a “full participant with ‘zero restrictions’ at a player-led private minicamp for the Australian men’s basketball team,” in Melbourne on Monday. Per Marc J. Spears, he sat out the ‘25–26 season to fully recover from the back injury that plagued his final NBA seasons as well as other injuries accumulated from the grind of professional basketball. Most importantly, Simmons’s renewed interest in basketball has attracted the attention of the NBA.

“Several NBA teams have expressed interest in Simmons, who is open to signing a minimum contract, according to sources,” Spears reported. “One source said he has a non-guaranteed offer on the table for minicamp with a Western Conference team.”

In the barren news landscape of August in the NBA, it’s a somewhat interesting item. But how real is this comeback attempt from Simmons? How seriously should you pay attention? And in the possible future where he pulls it off, which teams are best-suited to take a chance on the former top talent?

Simmons’s NBA comeback has more behind it than most stories of its ilk

It’s a semi-regular exercise in the NBA world for players who washed out of the pros for one reason or another to try to engineer a comeback. The NBA is the best (and most lucrative) basketball league in the world, with a siren call nearly as inescapable as the ones Matt Damon encountered in The Odyssey. It is far from unusual to see a comeback attempt publicly pushed in the months before the regular season—which means it’s awfully hard to take any of them seriously. These comeback attempts are almost always ill-fated. There’s a reason these guys have to make a comeback, after all. They couldn’t stick in the league the first time around. It’s extremely difficult to prove they can stick the second time around, and even more difficult to convince a prospective team to take a chance on them with so many other options available in an extremely large player pool.

So it is not only fair but correct to view Simmons’s comeback with a healthy degree of skepticism. But his reasoning for wanting to return to the NBA gives it a little extra juice compared to similar stories.

Per reports, Simmons is driven to return to professional basketball because he wants to play for his home country of Australia in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He’s never worn the national uniform at the Olympics and is so driven to do so in two years that he paid his own way to attend the players minicamp on Monday that sparked off the news cycle, according to Spears. Australia has a very competitive international team with a lot of talented players, so Simmons’s former stature as a max contract NBA star isn’t enough to earn him a roster spot. He has to prove he can still play. What better way to do that than to garner attention from the NBA and possibly sign a contract?

Most guys in his position are trying to make it back to the NBA for reasons that have to do with money or prestige or the sheer competition of it all. From what we can tell, Simmons is doing this for love of country. Which, as the World Cup reminded everybody, cannot be underestimated when we’re talking about what it means to suit up in home colors for professional athletes of all types.

That doesn’t make it any more likely he can pull this off. But if the ‘28 Olympics are the goal, Simmons has more reason to stand tall in the face of the upcoming adversity—reasons more meaningful than his bank account.

What can Simmons offer, and which teams could be interested?

Regardless of the why, Simmons has to actually show he has value to a potential employer. Which will be tough based on what we saw the last time he was on an NBA floor.

Simmons started his last pro season with the Nets and played 25 minutes per night for 33 games, with 24 starts; Brooklyn was in full tank mode at this point and were glad to give him run. But Simmons was released in February ’25 in order to sign with a more competitive team in the Clippers. He came off the bench in L.A. to play 16.4 minutes per night and received spot minutes in five playoff games before the team was eliminated by the Nuggets. Simmons’s stats in his final season: 5.0 points, 5.6 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game.

Those are underwhelming numbers compared to what Simmons proved capable of in Philadelphia to start his career. His defense was also far from its peak, and the impact of injuries on his decline is the biggest question that he must answer. But through the lens of a low-end rotational player ... he isn’t a disaster. Simmons has always been a great passer and dishing out over five dimes a night on limited minutes isn’t easy. It’s the skillset of a third point guard, and if he hit the boards at something resembling his former level after giving his body a year off, Simmons can be a productive bench player.

Scoring, of course, remains his biggest wart. No part of Simmons’s game fell apart more completely in his final NBA years than his ability to put the ball in the basket. His inability to shoot from outside the paint or hit free throws threw a wrench into his team’s offense. Even worse was Simmons’s hesitation to score when he had an opportunity. Failing to even look at the basket when the defense left him alone hamstrung Simmons’s team and his own ability to make things happen, even if it’s not scoring. If he proves to be over that particular mental hump, teams can trust his productivity won’t come at the cost of the greater process.

Former All-Star guard Ben Simmons is eyeing an NBA comeback after going unsigned in 2025–26. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Presmuing some front office out there decides Simmons checks those boxes, where would his skillset be most useful?

The Kings stand out as an obvious choice. They’re in search of backup ball handling and a player who can help Darius Acuff Jr. in his rookie season, which can be rough for young point guards. Tapping Simmons to bring the ball up reliably isn’t the worst idea in the world, particularly for a minimum deal.

The Nuggets are in a holding pattern as the Peyton Watson situation gets figured out but seem to be in “leave no stone unturned” mode after signing Lonnie Walker IV out of Israel. They also need a backup ballhandler with Bruce Brown seemingly not returning. Simmons would also fit right in with the Warriors’ operation in the Bay given his status as an over-the-hill former All-Star and Draymond Green-esque skillset (Green is miles better, to be clear, but as far as forwards with unusual ballhandling capabilities go).

Ultimately, at the cost of a minimum deal, there could be tons of teams interested in kicking the tires on Simmons. There might also be none at all. Nothing is guaranteed for the 30-year-old. But on paper, his skillset is rare for a 6'10" player. Particularly if Simmons can rediscover his defensive chops.

We’ll see how his workout goes. But if the Olympics are Simmons’s goal, we can make a good bet he won’t give up easily. Which is important. The comeback hill is a tall one to climb, after all.

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