From an annual salary of 40 million to a basic salary of 3 million! Simmons, is your final destination?

There are two players in the NBA free market, and their current situation is very similar, Westbrook and Simmons. They all experienced a plunge in value and have not found their final destination after becoming free agents this summer. The turning point in Westbrook's career was that during the Lakers' period, he was not well-done with the Lakers and could not find his position. Coupled with the influence of age and injuries, it was very fatal for his explosive defender. After being abandoned by the Lakers, Westbrook instantly became from a maximum-paid star to a minimum-paid role player. Among the many old-school traditional superstars, he was also the first to start degenerating. Like Westbrook, Ben Simmons was incredible a few years ago. Simmons reached the peak in the league when he first arrived. He was selected as an All-Star for three consecutive years and renewed his contract for 170 million yuan in 4 years in 2019.

Last season, Simmons entered the last year of his contract, with an annual salary of more than US$40 million. However, his current ability is seriously inconsistent with this salary. After reaching a buyout with the Nets last season, Simmons transferred to join the Clippers and signed a one-year basic salary contract with the Clippers. During the offseason, the Clippers had no intention of renewing his contract, so Simmons had to start his wandering journey again. Simmons is not at the point where he has no ball to play, but it is difficult for him to get a contract of tens of millions. According to American journalist Brett Siegel, the Celtics and the Knicks are the two teams that are most interested in Simmons. Simmons is unlikely to choose the Celtics. On the one hand, the Celtics just signed Chris Boucher, and on the other hand, the Celtics are a giant team.

They just won the championship last year. If Simmons is introduced after losing Tatum, fans will have a stronger desire to win. Once Simmons refuses to shoot, there will be great pressure on public opinion. In this way, Simmons is likely to join the Knicks. Reporter Sam Quinn reported that the Knicks may offer Simmons a 3 million minimum salary contract. In this year's playoffs, the Knicks broke the Eastern Conference finals drought since 2000, but then parted ways with coach Tom Thibodeau and hired Mike Brown as the new head coach. This summer, the team has introduced Jordan Clarkson and Gaelson Yabuselle. Due to the salary structure that focuses on the main players, the lineup is limited, so the final signing needs to be more cautious. Signing Simmons at the base salary is not a good choice. The report mentioned that Simmons made 18 appearances during his time with the Los Angeles Clippers last season, averaging 2.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 0.7 steals per game. Quinn believes Simmons' defensive diversity and organizational abilities can play a role in the Knicks bench lineup, especially providing offensive organization when Jaylen Brunson rests and adding more defensive options to the new coach's system. With Simmons' talent and personal attributes, he will definitely be a hot spot in the market and has strong adaptability for any team. As a big defender, he has certain organizational skills, excellent defense and strong functionality. However, Simmons' data in recent years has indeed been a little too shabby, just like after joining the Clippers last season, he averaged less than 3 points per game.

Then why is Simmons' fall? The turning point was actually in the 21st playoffs, and Simmons performed extremely poorly in the second round of the series against the Hawks. That year, his free throw percentage was only 34%, setting a record for the NBA's history, which led to him not daring to take action, fearing that his opponents would frequently use the "Slash Western tactics". In the series against the Hawks, until the last moment of the tiebreak battle, Simmons received the ball under the basket and faced Trae Young, but did not choose to take action, but passed the ball to his teammates, missing the scoring opportunity in the offensive round, which indirectly caused the 76ers to lose that round of the series. After being eliminated, Simmons was pushed to the forefront by public opinion. Even his teammate Embiid and head coach Rivers criticized him in public, which greatly affected Simmons' mentality and since then he became increasingly unfavorable in playing basketball.

, and for a while later, Simmons was affected by a back injury, and his attendance rate dropped sharply. The double blow of physical and psychological caused the talented No. 1 pick to die quickly. Until now, Simmons has not been able to get rid of his problem of not daring to take action. After joining the Clippers last season, his performance in the first few games was still very good, but after the game, he still had an old problem. His shots were getting fewer and fewer, and his presence on the court was getting lower and lower, resulting in such a dismal data. In the words of US media ClutchPoints, for Simmons, once again, welcoming a "restart" is the key to regaining his form and reshaping his role. If you can join the Knicks, do you think Simmons will prove himself again here?