Simmons to sign with third NBA team after Nets release

Ben Simmons is set to join his third NBA team and start a new chapter after reaching a buyout with the Brooklyn Nets.

Ben Simmons is set to join his third NBA team and start a new chapter with the LA Clippers.

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The Nets reportedly agreed to a contract buyout with Simmons on Sunday morning (all times AEDT), ending his disappointing stay in Brooklyn.

The team requested waivers on Simmons, 28, and the Aussie is now an unrestricted free agent. It’s uncertain how much money the Nets saved with the buyout.

While Simmons won’t officially clear waivers until Tuesday, he reportedly intends to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers, as first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Around an hour after the news broke, Simmons posted a photo to his Instagram Story to his 7.3 million followers that appeared to show his bags packed at an airport, then another post on an aeroplane with a basketball at his feet.

Just In: Three-time NBA All-Star Ben Simmons intends to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers after clearing waivers, league sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/D37Tzmik46

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 8, 2025

Around an hour after the news broke, Simmons posted a photo to his Instagram Story to his 7.3 million followers that appeared to show his bags packed at an airport.

Simmons made a second post to his Instagram Story.

If Simmons does indeed sign with the Clippers, the former All-Star will be playing with the man he was traded for two years ago (James Harden) and would make his Barclays Center return on March 29.

“Like all things with Brooklyn during Ben’s time there this was handled with the utmost support and class from (general manager) Sean Marks and staff and ownership,” Simmons’ agent Bernie Lee told the New York Post.

“After the trade deadline passed we had a conversation where we mutually agreed to come up with a solution to give Ben the opportunity to seek out a fresh start for himself. I would just like to take a second to truly thank Sean Marks, the entire coaching staff and ownership for their partnership for the last few seasons and the incredible amount to which they supported Ben every step of the way.”

Injuries – back woes, herniated discs and multiple surgeries – marred his stay in Brooklyn.

Ben Simmons is set to sign with the LA Clippers (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)

Once Harden blindsided the Nets with a trade request in 2023 just days before the trade deadline, Brooklyn sent him to Philadelphia for Simmons.

Simmons missed the rest of that season, and came into this season having played just 57 of the Nets’ 191 games after the trade became official.

Following a second back surgery, Simmons finally began a slow return to at least moderate health this season.

He appeared in 33 of Brooklyn’s 51 games, averaging 6.2 points, 6.9 assists and 5.2 rebounds, serving as the backup point guard first to Dennis Schroder and then to D’Angelo Russell.

Now Simmons could be backing up Harden and figures to provide playmaking and another ball handler alongside Harden and Kawhi Leonard.

After the buyout, Simmons is free to sign elsewhere. He was linked with the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers and Western Conference-contending Houston Rockets, but ESPN reported he intends to join the Clippers.

While the LA Lakers made a big splash at the trade deadline by adding Luka Doncic and Mark Williams, crosstown rivals Clippers are in the midst of their own strong season, sitting seventh in the Western Conference at 28-23.

That comes despite Paul George departing as a free agent last off-season and Kawhi Leonard being restricted to just 13 of a possible 51 games due to ongoing injury troubles.

The Clippers also landed Bogdan Bogdanovic this week to help with their offence, acquiring the guard from Atlanta in a trade that sent Terance Mann the other way.

“As we just completed the buyout we now have to take a second and consider what is to come next,” Lee told The New York Post.

As Simmons was set to earn $40.3 million this season, he’s barred from inking with some teams.

Due to a quirk in the CBA, teams that are over the first apron are not permitted to sign a player who is waived and had a pre-existing salary of $12.8 million.

That means that even though Simmons is now an unrestricted free agent, he can’t sign with the defending champion Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, the Knicks or Phoenix Suns.

Simmons is in the final year of a three-season, maximum contract signed with the Clippers. He’s set to become a free agent this off-season.

-This story was originally published in The New York Post and reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Simmons to sign with third NBA team after Nets release