Should the Charlotte Hornets Pursue Former All Star Ben Simmons?

Signing Simmons to fill their last roster spot would be an intriguing move for Charlotte.

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The Charlotte Hornets are in need of ball handlers.

Unless Jeff Peterson and Charles Lee are comfortable with letting some combination of Christian Anderson, Tre Mann, Grayson Allen and Sion James run the second unit, the Hornets still have moves to make before training camp ramps up in September.

Maybe they'll acquire Dennis Schroder from Cleveland or D'Angelo Russell from Memphis - Charlotte has avenues to do so.

But what if they went a completely different route and used their last remaining roster spot on a former All Star looking to make a comeback? This author believes that would be a wise decision.

Charlotte should be interested in bringing Ben Simmons to training camp

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Ben Simmons has long been a complicated player.

The former number one overall pick was on the trajectory to superstardom in Philadelphia alongside Joel Embiid before back issues and an inability to shoot free throws turned him into a shell of his All-NBA self. Simmons was jettisoned from Philly to Brooklyn in the James Harden trade, and he's never been able to find the form that escaped him in the Sixers' infamous 2021 Eastern Conference Semi Finals loss to the Hawks

According to Mac Spears of ESPN, Simmons is expected to be a full participant in a player-led mini-camp for the Australian national team, and that he has regained some of his lost athleticism after a year away from professional basketball.

If that is true, then he's absolutely worth a flyer for a team like Charlotte who could use another perimeter play maker.

At his peak, Simmons was an ambidextrous offensive player who could dribble, pass, and score around the cup with both hands. He was a nightmare in transition that had enough strength and finesse to play and finish through the trees. Defensively, Simmons was a switchable, queen-of-the-chess-board type piece that could singlehandedly change games with his event creation. Even though he couldn't space the floor or shoot free throws, Simmons was a stellar two-way player that rightfully earned three All-Star nods, a third-team All-NBA recognition, and the 2018 Rookie of the Year award.

It's not reasonable to expect Simmons to return to the NBA as his prime self, but even a blurry facsimile of the locomotive point forward could be of use to this iteration of the Hornets.

Simmons never finished an NBA season below the 96th percentile in rim attempt rate among point guards. And save for his final NBA season in 2024-25, he never finished less than 66% of those attempts. This author has bemoaned Charlotte's lack of rim pressure, and Simmons would be a nice single-season band-aid for those issues.

The Hornets roster is also tailor-made to accentuate Simmons' strengths while hiding his weaknesses. Charlotte could play him with either Naz Reid or Hannes Steinbach manning the center position, and three shooters to maximize the space around the non-shooting Simmons. His ability to drive and kick would be a great complement to back court snipers like Anderson, Allen, and Kon Knueppel, and his defensive ability would allow everyone to scale down on that end.

The risk of signing Simmons to a veteran's minimum deal is miniscule. Jeff Peterson was a part of the front office group that brought the former LSU Tiger to Brooklyn back in 2021, so he would know better than most what Simmons can bring to an NBA franchise at this stage of his career. He'd also have a first-hand account of Simmons' off-court character which came into question at the end of his career in Philadelphia.

If Peterson deems Simmons worthy of a camp invite, it would be hard to question him. The questions come when doing the roster math for Charlotte, because Simmons would join the crew of Pat Connaughton, Dorian Finney-Smith, Tidjane Salaun, and Tre Mann who are fighting for the 15th and final roster spot.

Competition breeds growth, though, and Simmons could bring that to training camp much like Spencer Dinwiddie did last fall. Time will tell if his story has a different ending than Dinwiddie's, though, if Simmons does wind up inking a contract with the Hornets.

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