Sacramento’s $3.5 Million Bet on Ben Simmons Ends in Practice

Ben Simmons tore his right Achilles tendon in a Sacramento Kings practice drill on Sunday and will have surgery, ending his comeback before opening night. Sacramento had signed him on Sept. 4 to a one-year, $3.5 million contract, the only NBA deal on the table after he sat out all of 2025-26, and planned to start him on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Kings will pay him anyway. The body that passed their medicals in September did not make it to a regular-season minute.

Sacramento Wrote the Only Contract

Workout invitations in July drew no NBA visitors. Simmons had been out of the league for a full season, rehabbing back and leg injuries, running a sport-fishing team in South Florida, and waiting for a front office to look. In early August he paid his own way to Melbourne and trained as a full participant at an Australian national-team minicamp, going against Josh Giddey, Dyson Daniels, and the rest of the Boomers group. That camp is what changed the file.

His godfather, David Patrick, an Australian assistant who coached him at LSU, told the Kings they should check. General manager Scott Perry then watched him work out in Miami and sat with him for an hour in late August. Simmons flew to Sacramento for a medical exam and an on-court session at the practice facility that impressed Perry and coach Doug Christie. The offer followed. Basketball Australia recorded Sacramento as the only NBA club to offer him a contract. Other clubs that had circled after the camp did not put paper in front of him.

The Kings had finished 22-60, tied for the worst record in the West, waived DeMar DeRozan in July, and did not bring back Russell Westbrook. They needed a big guard who could pass and cover ground. At signing, the staff talked about him as a backup behind a rookie and as someone who could play all five spots. Two preseason games later, he was in the first five.

Christie had already bought the version he saw in the gym.

To watch him come back and see the glimmer in his eye and the love for the game, it’s a special, special thing. I just watch him with a smile because I’ve been there.

Doug Christie, Kings coach

The Tear Came During a Sunday Drill

The injury happened in a live drill at Sunday’s practice. An MRI confirmed a torn right Achilles. The Kings said he will have surgery and that further updates will be provided as appropriate. They did not attach a timetable. A team source said he is expected to miss the 2026-27 season. League notes list him out indefinitely with a torn Achilles on a veteran minimum deal signed in September.

He had played twice in the preseason. On Oct. 10 at Golden State he was out there for nine minutes. On Oct. 16 at San Antonio he started and posted 14 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists in 26 minutes. That is 35 minutes across two nights, 17.5 a night, and 10.5 points a night. The attacking style was the part people had not seen from him in years.

THE WEEKEND THAT CLOSED THE BET

1. Oct. 10, 2026: Plays nine minutes in his Kings preseason debut at Golden State.
2. Oct. 16, 2026: Starts at San Antonio and finishes with 14 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists in 26 minutes.
3. Oct. 18, 2026: Tears the right Achilles in a live drill at practice. An MRI confirms the tear. Surgery is scheduled. He posts a statement saying the injury is another chapter, not the end.
4. Oct. 21, 2026: Sacramento opens at the Clippers without him.

He wrote that he had been knocked down before. The tone was the one he has used after every detour since Philadelphia. The basketball problem in front of the Kings is simpler than the language. Their new starter is gone, and the opener is on Oct. 21.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The injury: Torn right Achilles tendon, confirmed by MRI after a live drill at Sunday practice.
• The next step: Surgery, with the Kings promising updates as they come.
• The season: A team source said he is expected to miss 2026-27.
• The money: The deal is one year and $3.5 million, and injury continuation means the full amount is due.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Surgery date: The club has not said when the operation will happen or who will do it.
• Return year: No medical timetable has been released beyond the expectation that this season is gone.
• Wednesday’s five: The Kings have not named a replacement starter for the Clippers.

Three days separate the drill from tip-off at Intuit Dome. That is the whole window the bet had left.

The Documentary Premiere and the MRI

The same Sunday, an E60 film built around the comeback went out on television. Being Ben, which debuted Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET, follows him from Melbourne to the 2016 draft, through Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and the Clippers, and onto the water in the Florida Keys. Marc Spears interviewed him for the film. Scott Perry and Australia coach Adam Caporn appear in it. So do Doc Rivers, Danny Green, and Trae Young. The premiere and the MRI landed on the same calendar day.

At Kings media day, Simmons had already named the wager in plain words. He did not know, after a year off, whether the league would take him back.

Given that I took a year off, I didn’t know if I was gonna have an opportunity to get back in the league. But that was a chance I took, and I bet on myself.

Ben Simmons, Kings media day

He also said there was no pressure in Sacramento, because the club was not expected to do much. That was the point of the fit. A 22-win roster could hide a 30-year-old while he found his legs. In June he had talked about needing space to find himself again after the back work. The year away included deep-sea fishing and a controlling role with the South Florida Sails in the Sport Fishing Championship. The documentary treats the boat as peace. The practice drill treated the tendon as tissue that had been asked to sprint again.

The cheap jokes that followed him after Philadelphia did not lead once the MRI posted. The take that stuck was that he had just started to look as if he wanted the ball. That is a thin thing to lose a season over, and it is what the two preseason games had actually shown.

What Changes for Darius Acuff Jr. Now?

Darius Acuff Jr., the No. 7 pick in the 2026 draft, still starts at point guard on Wednesday. What he no longer has is a 6-foot-10 teammate who was going to bring the ball up, cover for early mistakes, and let a 19-year-old play off the ball. The original idea at signing was that Simmons would sit behind the rookie. Camp flipped it. Simmons started next to him. Now the rookie has the job without the cover.

Acuff, listed at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds out of Arkansas, scored in double figures in all four preseason games and averaged 17.3 points, including 25 points and eight assists against Golden State. He had 13 points in 19 minutes in the San Antonio loss, the same night Simmons put up 14, 8, and 7. The pairing had a simple logic. Simmons initiates, Acuff attacks, Zach LaVine spots on the wing, and Domantas Sabonis finishes at the rim. Take Simmons out and the 19-year-old has to organize the first unit himself against a Clippers team that already knows this building.

WHAT ACUFF LOSES WITHOUT SIMMONS

• A second initiator: The rookie was not supposed to start every possession as the only passer in the first five.
• Size on the ball: A 6-foot-10 teammate who can guard across the lineup is gone for the year.
• Error cover: Veteran minutes that were meant to hide early-season turnovers are now a hole on the wing.

Acuff can still score. The preseason did not hide that. What it did not test is a full diet of pick-and-roll decisions with no Simmons to swing the ball when the first action dies. That test starts at Intuit Dome.

De’Andre Hunter and the Minutes That Opened

De’Andre Hunter is the grown-up in the room the Kings just emptied. Sacramento got him at last season’s trade deadline. Eye surgery then wiped out most of his Kings sample. He started the first two preseason games this fall, then sat when Simmons, Keegan Murray, and Precious Achiuwa took the frontcourt. Hunter’s preseason line was ugly in spots, including a night with three points and no field-goal attempts in 13 minutes. The club still had him in the second unit behind a healthy Simmons. That hierarchy lasted until Sunday.

THE FIRST FIVE SACRAMENTO TOOK INTO THE WEEKEND

The middle row is the whole event for this roster. Hunter is 28, 6-foot-7, and a seven-year veteran out of Virginia. He can shoot and he can defend a wing. He cannot mimic a 6-foot-10 point forward who was going to start possessions. If Christie goes back to the five the club used before Simmons arrived, Hunter is the straightforward insert. If he wants more playmaking, the minutes scatter to Malik Monk and whoever else can bring the ball up next to Acuff. The Kings have not said which way they will go.

Wednesday’s opponent is the last NBA team Simmons suited up for. He finished 2024-25 with the Clippers after a February 2025 buyout from Brooklyn, averaging 2.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.1 assists in 18 games on a bad back. His last appearance was Game 5 of the first round against Denver in April 2025. The 2024-25 combined line across Brooklyn and Los Angeles was 51 games, 5.0 points, 5.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds. Sacramento was the first club willing to treat that tape as a paused career rather than a closed one.

How a $1 Million Guarantee Became $3.5 Million

The contract was built to protect the Kings if the body failed a different test. Michael Scotto reported in September that the one-year deal was non-guaranteed and worth up to $3.5 million, with $1 million earned if Simmons was on the opening-night roster. He was going to be. The tear landed three days early. NBA cap analyst Bobby Marks wrote that because this is a significant injury, salary continuation pays his full salary.

THE $3.5 MILLION LEDGER

• Face value: One year, $3.5 million, the veteran minimum for his service time.
• Opening-night trigger: $1 million if he was on the roster for the Oct. 21 game.
• What the tear does: Salary continuation on a significant injury pays the whole $3.5 million.
• What the Kings got: Two preseason games, 10.5 points per night, zero regular-season minutes.

That is the wager, settled. Sacramento risked a minimum slot and a starting job on a man who had not played in the NBA since April 2025. The medicals in Sacramento said yes. The tendon in the drill said no. He gets paid as if he had taken the opening tip. They get a vacant wing and a rookie who now has to run the show.

At 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds he was still the same geometric problem for a defense, which is why a 22-win team used a roster spot on him. Career numbers over 383 games sit at 13.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 7.2 assists, and 1.5 steals, most of that from the Philadelphia years when he was Rookie of the Year in 2018 and a three-time All-Star. He has not had a full season since. Foot trouble cost him 2016-17 before he played a game. He missed 2021-22 in the trade holdout and the health spiral that followed. He sat out 2025-26 on purpose, after two back surgeries, to try to get the body right. The Achilles is a new structure on top of that pile, and it is the one that ends this season.

Three Achilles Tears Before Tip-Off

Simmons is the third NBA player to tear an Achilles in this preseason. Philadelphia center Ariel Hukporti ruptured his right Achilles six minutes into the 76ers’ preseason opener against the Knicks on Oct. 6 and had surgery the same day. Oklahoma City guard Otega Oweh, the 41st pick in the 2026 draft, tore his right Achilles against Indiana and had surgery on Oct. 15; the Thunder said he will miss 2026-27. Simmons, on Oct. 18, made it three right-side tears in 13 days, none of them in a regular-season game.

Hukporti was a depth center. Oweh was a two-way rookie on a loaded roster. Simmons was a projected opening-night starter on a club that had already built the first five around him. The medical event is the same. The roster hole is not. Sacramento cannot wait on a 2027 Summer League look. It has a game at 10:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday in Inglewood.

Australia will wait longer too. Simmons had not played for the Boomers since he was a teenager in 2013, then showed up in Melbourne this August with the 2027 World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Games in the background. Caporn was going to keep watching the Kings tape. That tape now stops at a practice drill.

Simmons, in the Instagram story, said adversity does not define you and that how you respond does. He has said versions of that after the foot, after the holdout, after the back. The next response is a reconstructed Achilles at 30, on a fully paid minimum deal, with no regular-season film from this stop. The Clippers will see a different Kings starting group than the one Sacramento took into the weekend. The bet is already on the books.