Celtics Tabbed as Landing Spot for All-Star Free Agent as Season Nears

The new-look Boston Celtics may not be contending for their record-extending 19th championship this season, but that doesn't mean the team isn't still on the prowl for cheap help heading into 2025-26.

Former three-time All-Star point forward Ben Simmons, still just 29, remains a free agent deep into the preseason. The 6-foot-10 vet split his 2024-25 campaign between the Brooklyn Nets and LA Clippers. After agreeing to a contract buyout with Brooklyn (he ultimately earned $124 million to play just 90 healthy games), the former No. 1 draft pick linked up with LA, hoping to return to the postseason after years in the lottery wilderness.

Simmons' Clippers Struggles

But he felt the rotation squeeze, and only suited up for five of seven playoff games, playing largely mop-up minutes under head coach Ty Lue. He averaged 0.8 points on 33.3 percent field goal shooting, 1.4 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.8 blocks in 8.4 minutes per.

It's clear that Simmons' years of back and foot surgeries, plus some mental health concerns after his contract holdout season with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2021-22, have changed his upside.

Scott Polacek of Bleacher Report submits that the Celtics number among one of three contending or semi-contending teams that might benefit from bringing in Simmons, along with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons.

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Polacek notes that bringing in a switchy former All-Defensive Team guard would help supply the Celtics with "playable depth," after the club lost five-time All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum with an Achilles tendon tear and subsequently lost center Kristaps Porzingis, All-Defensive Team guard Jrue Holiday, big man Al Horford, and center Luke Kornet in a flurry of offseason moves.

"Adding someone like Simmons, who can play as a ball-handling guard or a big in a small-ball lineup, for cheap would give head coach Joe Mazzulla some much-needed options when mixing and matching his lineups and rotation," Polacek notes.

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Polacek opines that Simmons could help shore up the Celtics' guard rotation beyond two-time All-Defensive Teamer Derrick White, 2025 Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard, and new trade addition Anfernee Simons. Simmons isn't exactly a 3-point shooter, having made an abysmal 13.9 percent of his takes from deep. He's also an unreliable free throw shooter, having made just 50 percent of his regular season takes from the charity stripe over the course of his career.

"Simmons isn't going to be the type of addition that will dramatically elevate Boston's ceiling, but he is someone who can help it tread water until Tatum potentially returns later in the season," Polacek concludes.

Last year in a backup role with the Clippers, Simmons averaged 2.9 points on 43.4 percent shooting from the field and 85.7 percent shooting from the free throw line, 3.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 0.7 steals in 16.4 minutes per. Really, Boston would be looking to bring him aboard for everything he does beyond scoring.

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