{"id":454157,"date":"2026-09-05T05:19:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454157\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T05:19:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:19:35","slug":"ben-simmons-handed-nba-lifeline-in-one-year-deal-with-sacramento-kings-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454157\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Simmons handed NBA lifeline in one-year deal with Sacramento Kings | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian former No 1 overall draft pick Ben Simmons has taken a significant step towards resurrecting his NBA career, agreeing a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne-born guard returns on a US$3.5m (AU$4.9m) contract after sitting \u200cout the entire 2025-26 campaign while rehabilitating back and leg injuries that have hampered him in recent years.<\/p>\n

Simmons, who last played with the Los Angeles Clippers in April 2025, celebrated his Kings deal on social media on Saturday morning (AEST) by posting a photograph of himself wearing a team cap.<\/p>\n

While reigniting Simmons\u2019 NBA career, his latest move is also a step towards possible Australian Boomers selection<\/a> for next year\u2019s Fiba World Cup in Qatar and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.<\/p>\n

The Boomers, under Washington Wizards assistant and former NBL guard Adam Caporn, are chasing a podium return after a breakthrough bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics five years ago.<\/p>\n

Simmons spent his year out of basketball rebuilding his body and gathered momentum in his comeback bid during a Boomers mini-camp in Melbourne last month.<\/p>\n

The former Philadelphia 76ers (2017-21), Brooklyn Nets<\/a> (2022-25) and Clippers (2024-25) guard also reportedly attracted serious attention from the reigning champion New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors before he signed with Sacramento.<\/p>\n

Simmons was drafted as the No 1 overall by Philadelphia<\/a> in 2016, but missed his entire first season with a foot injury before establishing himself as one of the league\u2019s brightest young stars.<\/p>\n

He claimed 2017-18 rookie \u200cof the year honours and was a two-time All-Defensive \u200bpick before further injuries derailed his career<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simmons has not played more than 58 games \u200bin \u200ba season since 2018-19.<\/p>\n

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He \u200bhas averaged 13.1 points, \u200c7.4 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 1.5 steals in 383 career games (344 starts) with the 76ers, Nets and Clippers.<\/p>\n

Sacramento open the NBA<\/a> pre-season at home against the Los Angeles Lakers on 5 October, and visit the Clippers for their regular-season opener on 21 \u200bOctober.<\/p>\n

The Kings were 22-60 last season, finishing 14th in the Western Conference, and have only reached the playoffs once since 2006.<\/p>\n

They suffered a first-round loss to Golden State in 2023, and have not won a playoff series since 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian former No 1 overall draft pick Ben Simmons has taken a significant step towards resurrecting his NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-454157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}