Ben Simmons Signs One-Year $3.5M With the Kings
Sacramento paid the nine-year vet min after a second workout and in-depth medicals. Acuff gets a 6'10 backup who can mentor, help, and short-roll — if the back holds.
Photo: NBA.com. Official Ben Simmons headshot.
Simmons agreed to a one-year deal with the Kings.
It is a $3.5M contract, the $3,524,115 veteran minimum for nine years of service, with a Sacramento cap hit of $2,449,421. Whether that salary is guaranteed remains unclear.
Acuff is the starting point guard of the plan. Sacramento took him seventh overall in 2026 and is expected to hand him the ball. Simmons is the veteran in the second chair: a 6'10 passer who has already lived through the ROY season, three All-Star nods, and the defensive peak that put him on All-Defensive First Team in 2020 and 2021 while finishing top-four in DPOY voting both years. For a rookie learning NBA help, switch communication, and when to push versus when to walk it up, that body next to him on the practice floor matters more than another small scoring guard who needs the same touches.
The half-court problem is spacing, and you can see it without inventing a new roster. Domantas Sabonis is still in Sacramento as the presumed starting center. Zach LaVine and Malik Monk are still there as the shotmakers. Put Simmons next to LaVine and Monk and the floor can breathe. They pull closeouts and let him attack closeouts he creates with size, or hit Sabonis on a short roll when the big is the one who screened.
Put him next to another non-shooter for long stretches and defenses load the paint, ignore him on the weak side, and dare Sacramento to make threes from the wrong people. The deal does not erase that tax. Christie has to choose lineups that pay it down.
What Simmons still sells on a good night is the chain you used to take for granted. He can load help from the weak side, tag a roller with length, then become the outlet himself. In transition he is a mismatch against most backup guards. On the short roll he can see over the first helper and find the corner before the help recovers. Career numbers of 13.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 7.2 assists, and 1.5 steals across 383 games were built on those reads more than any jumper. Sacramento is betting that enough of that engine remains after a full season away.
Photo: NBA.com / Getty Images (NBAE), GettyImages-1245155694. Ben Simmons #10 Brooklyn Nets in-game. Landscape still, 1849x1132, full head.
Simmons missed all of 2025-26. His last games came in 2024-25, split between Brooklyn and the Clippers. The back surgeries in May 2022 and March 2024, plus only 90 games across that Brooklyn stretch, are why Perry brought him in for a late-August workout and an hour of conversation, then brought him back this Monday for a second workout, a meeting with Christie and staff, and in-depth medical examinations. You clocked that second Sacramento visit before the agreement posted. A one-year vet min is the structure you use when the tape looks promising and the MRI still has to keep answering questions every month.
Sacramento weighed other free-agent guards before landing here, including Victor Oladipo, Cameron Payne, Gabe Vincent, Elfrid Payton, and Russell Westbrook before Westbrook retired. The Knicks and Warriors also had interest. After the DeRozan stretch at $10M came off, adding Simmons as a 14th man on a standard contract (not an Exhibit 9) leaves the Kings roughly $2.9M under the tax with room for a 15th man without crossing. That is a low-cost swing at a former No. 1 overall who can still change a possession with size if the back cooperates.
When you watch camp, track the usage before you trust the press release. If Acuff starts and Simmons closes certain second units with LaVine or Monk spotting up and Sabonis diving, Sacramento bought a mentor who can still punish mismatches. If he is asked to stand in corner lineups next to other non-shooters, the same $3.5M becomes dead spacing. The Kings paid for the first version. Christie has to call it that way.
Sources
- Hoops Rumors, Kings and Ben Simmons agree to one-year deal, Sept. 2026
- ESPN, Sacramento Kings 2026-27 season preview (Sabonis / LaVine / Monk / Acuff still in Sacramento)
- SI, 2026-27 Kings roster / contracts / depth chart (Sabonis listed)
- NBA.com player page, Ben Simmons
- Photos: NBA.com official headshot; NBA.com / Getty Images action still, GettyImages-1245155694
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