![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2212003182-e1751485744414.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty \t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets takes a shot against Ben Simmons of the LA Clippers.<\/p>\n
The New York Knicks<\/a> just got a new rival suitor for former No. 1 pick Ben Simmons<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to NBA insider Marc Stein, a surprise team from the Western Conference has joined the growing list of suitors for Simmons.<\/p>\n \u201cLeague sources say that the Suns have also had some recent dialogue with former All-Star Ben Simmons, who I\u2019m told has drawn interest since free agency began from Boston, New York and Sacramento,\u201d Stein wrote<\/a> on his Substack newsletter \u201cThe Stein Line\u201d on July 20.<\/p>\n Currently, the Knicks have 12 players under contract and three roster spots to fill. They can enter the season with only 14 players, leaving the 15th roster spot open for potential buyout candidates during the season. However, they are limited in spending power, with only the veteran minimum to use to fill out their roster.<\/p>\n According to NBA insider Jake Fischer, the Knicks remain interested in Simmons.<\/p>\n \u201cThe two teams that we can report on that have ongoing interest in Ben Simmons are Sacramento and New York. That\u2019s the last word we got as we\u2019re leaving Las Vegas,\u201d\u00a0Fischer said on his \u201cInsider Notebook\u201d<\/a>\u00a0livestreamed on Bleacher Report on July 17. \u201cSo, generally speaking, the Kings are still a player in the veteran guard market, and you can absolutely put Ben Simmons in that conversation, even though he\u2019s obviously more of a hybrid player than\u00a0Malcolm Brogdon<\/a>, than [Russel] Westbrook<\/a>, than\u00a0Chris Paul<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n That was before the Suns joined the fray.<\/p>\n Knicks Among Early Teams to Register Interest in Ben Simmons<\/p>\n Simmons has been on the Knicks\u2019 radar early in NBA free agency.<\/p>\n SNY\u2019s Ian Begley<\/a>\u00a0was the first to report about the Knicks\u2019 strong interest in Simmons.<\/p>\n \u201cSimmons has met with three other teams and is expected to make a decision soon, per people familiar with the matter,\u201d Begley wrote on July 2.<\/p>\n It seems Simmons is taking his time deciding where to play next after his failed stint with the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> following his buyout with the Brooklyn Nets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Simmons signed a $1.08 million deal with the Clippers after reaching a buyout with the Nets for the remaining portion of his five-year, $170 million rookie extension contract he originally signed with the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 6-foot-10 Simmons has fallen off the cliff since he left Philadelphia over mental health and mysterious back issues. His once promising career went south in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n Last season, he averaged 6.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists in his final 33 games in Brooklyn. He only played 17 games for the Clippers and was an afterthought, averaging career-lows 2.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists.<\/p>\n Knicks \u2018Checked In\u2019 With Marcus Smart Before Lakers Deal Getty LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers posts up Marcus Smart, formerly of the Boston Celtics. Now, they are teammates.<\/p>\n The Knicks poked around Marcus Smart<\/a>, but they couldn\u2019t compete with their big-market rival\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post, the Knicks \u201cchecked in\u201d with Smart before the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year decided to join the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n \u201cPer source, Knicks couldn\u2019t offer the type of role Marcus Smart was looking for,\u201d\u00a0Bondy wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n With only the veteran minimum, the Knicks did not stand a chance against the Lakers, who waived Shake Milton and Jordan Goodwin to gain access to their $5.1 million bi-annual exception to sign Smart.<\/p>\n The three-time All-Defensive guard opted to sign a two-year, $11 million deal (player option on the second year) with the Lakers once he clears waivers after reaching a buyout with the rebuilding\u00a0Washington Wizards<\/a>,\u00a0ESPN\u2019s senior NBA insider Shams Charania reported<\/a>\u00a0on July 19.<\/p>\n In addition to the Knicks, the Phoenix Suns<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>\u00a0were the two other teams that seriously pursued the 2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAlder Almo<\/a> is a basketball journalist covering the NBA for Heavy.com. He has more than 15 years of experience in local and international media, including broadcast, print and digital. He previously covered the Knicks for Empire Sports Media and the NBA for Off the Glass. Alder is from the Philippines and is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey. More about Alder Almo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Knicks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets takes a shot against Ben Simmons of the LA Clippers. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-11338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"LeBron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1449227305-e1753035222359.jpg\")
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