“I’ll be honest. I thought the turning point was when we, I don\u2019t know how to say it, is when we had an open shot and we made one free throw,” Embiid said.<\/p>\n
Cut to this week and fifth-year power forward Trendon Watford’s triple double against the Toronto Raptors. Watford had 20 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in 37 minutes as the 76ers rolled the Raptors 130-120.<\/p>\n
Embiid said Watford “reminded me of Ben Simmons tonight.”<\/p>\n
“That was good, he added. “We miss those. Triple double, doing everything, so that was good.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/6918295edc1aba71f4cb59a0_GettyImages-2246208728.jpg\")
Wendell Moore Jr. #14 of the Detroit Pistons knocks the ball away from Trendon Watford #12 of the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half at Little Caesars Arena on November 15, 2025 (AEDT)\u00a0in Detroit, Michigan. Photo: Duane Burleson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Simmons, 29, who is yet to sign with an NBA team this season after being bought out by the Brooklyn Nets and signing with the Los Angeles Clippers before the trade deadline last season, averaged a triple-double every 8.6 games for the 76ers<\/p>\n
Ben Simmons Key Details\u200dPosition: Forward \/ Point-Forward\u200dHeight \/ Weight: 6\u201910\u201d (208 cm) \u2502 240 lbs (109 kg)\u200dAge: 29 (December 20, 1996)\u200dNationality: Australian\u200dMost Recent Team: Los Angeles Clippers (2024-25, vet-min deal)\u200dPrevious: Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers\u200dStatus: Unrestricted Free Agent<\/p>\n
In 275 game for the 76ers, who drafted the Melbourne-born star with the first pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, Simmons delivered 32 triple doubles between 2017 and 2021, including an astonishing 12 in his rookie year on the way to winning Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n
“I mean, he had all the talent in the world,\u2019\u2019 First Ballot NBA Hall of Famer and NBA champion Dirk Nowitzki<\/a> told Australian newspaper Sunday Herald Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNot quite sure all the stuff that happened there in Philly but it was disappointing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was like the rising star there for a long, long time. So we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s still early. Sometimes things get picked up later. You just got to stay ready, stay working out.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a bunch of free agents out there that I thought had a chance to be in the league.<\/p>\n “But there\u2019s just unfortunately only so many spots in our league \u2026 hopefully Ben can find a way back in.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n In Philadelphia, Simmons was a three-time NBA All-Star (2019\u20132021); All-NBA Third Team (2020); two-time NBA All-Defensive First Team (2020, 2021); NBA Rookie of the Year (2018); NBA All-Rookie First Team (2018); and NBA steals leader (2020).<\/p>\n Simmons has earned more than AUD $310M (USD $203M) in his nine-year career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joel Embiid\u2019s praise for Trendon Watford recalls memories of “All-Star Ben Simmons” in Philadelphia 1,609 days ago Joel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-285694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285694","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=285694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}