The top scorer + 40 million annual salary, get a basic salary at the age of 29, join the championship team and hold the thighs, and is even more frustrated than Westbrook this summer

Time is coming to late July, and the 2025 NBA offseason has arrived in the middle.

In this offseason, many players have signed big contracts that satisfy themselves. Among the old stars, Harden and Irving signed contracts with the Clippers and the Mavericks respectively. Among the young players, the third young master of the Thunder signed a total of more than $500 million in maximum salary, which can be said to have made a lot of money.

Of course, there are also some stars who are relatively disappointed during this offseason. They have not been able to wait for a contract that they are satisfied with. For example, the Warriors' Kumingga, the Bulls' Gidey, the Nets' Cam Thomas and others.

There are also some players who have not even been interested in the market and have been unable to find jobs.

The most representative one is Westbrook. As the former MVP superstar and the league triple-double king, Westbrook has not found his next home yet after breaking out of his last year contract with the Nuggets. It is really touching.

The same situation is also the 2016 No. 1 pick, Ben Simmons. Simmons joined the Clippers after buying out last season. He only played for the second half of the season and has never been able to return home after becoming a free agent this summer.

After more than two months of long waiting, Simmons is finally close to signing.

On July 26, according to Hoops Alerts, free agent Ben Simmons is expected to join the Celtics.

Simmons is 29 years old and is the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft. This summer, Simmons' five-year, $177.2 million max contract expired; last season, Simmons' total salary in the Nets and the Clippers exceeded $40 million.

In the 2024-25 season, Simmons played a total of 24 regular season games for the Nets and Clippers, and averaged 5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game in 22 minutes; in the playoffs, Simmons played 5 times and scored a total of 4 points.

Looking back then, Simmons was very energetic, but now he has reached such a field, he is really down and out.

But then again, it would be nice to have a team now. Judging from the performance of last season, you would think that Simmons is going to be eliminated by the NBA. Only high-level support will be left, and the physical fitness will not be reduced by a little bit. The defense that I once proud of was gone. The movement speed has become too slow. In the past, it was impossible to defend the defender at all. In the Clippers, he was allowed to play the power forward in the regular season and was often shot by others. He was allowed to play the game again to play the center, and he had strength confrontation, but he was shorter and could not defend against the center. He played 5 times in the playoffs and scored a total of 4 points.

Simmons was the hope of the revival of the 76ers. He scored 17+8+8 as soon as he entered the league, won the All-Stars one after another, defended for a while, and voted second in DPOY, able to defend No. 1-5, pass the ball, can make fast attacks, and have a strong physical fitness.

At that time, no one criticized him for not shooting, and at most he did not shoot three-pointers. He thought that he could have an average three-point shooting percentage for a few years, but he started to decline... It is really sad to see how he looks today.

If you want to talk about Simmons, you are even more frustrated than Westbrook. Westbrook has been at the peak and has won all kinds of honors, and he has begun to decline as he gets older. Simmons, who is only 29 years old, is at the golden age of an athlete, but he has fallen at the speed of light and has not realized his talent at all. This is not a pity.

Simmons has been able to join a champion team like the Celtics, and at least he still has a place to use it. However, if Simmons wants to regain his form, it may be impossible!