Ben Simmons keeps dangling as the kind of name that makes you pause, because the talent is real and the fit question is messy. For the Timberwolves, that’s exactly where this conversation lives: interesting on the surface, difficult once you start lining up the pieces.
Minnesota is heading into the season with a clear hole at power forward, and Simmons at least checks a few boxes on paper. He has the size.
He’s again exploring basketball opportunities. And according to sources, he is expected to be a full participant with “zeros restrictions” in a player-led Aussie men’s national team mini-camp in Melbourne beginning Monday.
Simmons sat out last season while trying to fully recover from injuries.
That availability matters because the Wolves need bodies in the frontcourt. Jaden McDaniels has been asked to play slightly out of position at the four, and while his defense gives Minnesota real value, stronger matchups can pull him into trouble. He finished last season with 244 fouls in the regular season, and Joan Beringer, the third frontcourt player in the rotation, led the Wolves in fouls per 36 minutes with more than five.
That’s where Simmons starts to look useful. He could give Minnesota another option as a small-ball center.
He could also slide to the four when McDaniels or Beringer runs into foul trouble. The appeal is obvious: size, defense, and some playmaking in one package.
He’d also bring pace. Even in his last season with the Los Angeles Clippers, when he was well below his peak, the ball security numbers improved with Simmons on the floor.
LA turned it over nearly four less times per 100 possessions when he played. Add in his habit of grabbing rebounds and firing the ball ahead in transition, and you can see why he would interest a team that wants more defense-into-offense chances.
But Minnesota’s offense already had spacing issues last season, and that’s the part that makes Simmons harder to sell as a real answer. Anthony Edwards and the rest of the group spent stretches fighting through a clogged floor, and the power forward spot was part of the problem. That eventually helped lead to Julius Randle being a salary dump trade to the Brooklyn Nets, a team Simmons once played for.
To make Simmons work, the lineup around him has to be right. With the Clippers, his most-used combinations included Nic Batum and Kawhi Leonard, the kind of big wings who can space the floor while also rebounding at a high level for their position. Derrick Jones Jr. was also part of that mix.
Minnesota does not have that exact puzzle lying around. McDaniels would fit.
Edwards would fit. After that, the questions get loud.
Does Simmons become a de facto third center? It’s tough to imagine him next to Rudy Gobert or Joan Beringer.
If the Wolves aren’t getting out in transition, opponents can go under screens, ignore Simmons away from the ball, and load up the paint.
So yes, there is upside. Simmons still has two very good skills Minnesota badly needs. But the lack of spacing and the absence of a halfcourt offensive game make it hard to see the tradeoff as worthwhile.
That’s the bigger issue: a Simmons move would run against the philosophy Minnesota appears to be chasing this season, one built around pace, space and stretching teams out to compensate for the roster’s lack of size. It would also likely cut into Beringer’s role, and the Wolves see the second-year big man as a bright spot they want to keep developing with more minutes.
If Minnesota is going to swing on a player in this mold, Jonathan Kuminga or Nicolas Batum might make more sense. They’re imperfect too, but they fit more naturally with what Chris Finch is trying to build.
Sometimes the name is tempting and the basketball answer is still no. For the Wolves, with limited money and limited trade chips, the margins are already thin.
Simmons may be an intriguing possibility. He just doesn’t look like the right solution.
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