The 76ers may have found one of their best offseason bargains in Anfernee Simons.
Philadelphia brought in a wave of new faces over the summer, and a few of them have already started to deliver early in the 2026-27 NBA season. But Simons is the one who has stood out most among the non-starters, and his two-year, $12 million deal is beginning to look like a major win for the Sixers.
Through six games, Simons has become the most important bench piece on the roster. He’s given Philadelphia a scoring burst when it needed one, and his shooting has opened up space around the team’s biggest names. That matters on a roster built around players who draw heavy defensive attention like LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey.
So far this season, Simons is averaging 12.0 points, 2.0 assists, and 1.3 rebounds in 24.7 minutes per game. He’s also hitting three 3-pointers per game, which leads the team, and he’s shooting 43.8 percent from deep, also tops on the roster.
His last three outings have made the case even stronger. Against the Indiana Pacers last week, Simons drilled six 3-pointers and scored 20 points in a win, finishing with a team-best +14.
He followed that with five made 3s and 21 points in Philadelphia’s NBA Cup victory over the New York Knicks. Then on Halloween night against the Charlotte Hornets, he added five more 3-pointers and 19 points.
The Sixers won all three games, and it’s hard not to wonder how different those nights might have looked without Simons coming off the bench and changing the game. For a team with so much salary tied up in its stars, that kind of production from the sixth-highest-paid player on the roster is exactly what Philadelphia needed.
Three players - Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, and Tyrese Maxey - are making more than $40 million this season, so the Sixers had to find value elsewhere. Simons is looking like exactly that.
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Dean Wade Is Helping The Sixers But One Issue Still Looms
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The bigger question is whether Philadelphia can get more aggression from him as a scorer. The Sixers pushed Wade to shoot more during training camp, but he has stayed reluctant to let it fly, leaving his points and field-goal attempts low for the amount of run he is getting. If that hesitation sticks, it could cap how much offensive upside the team can squeeze from a player who otherwise has been doing plenty of the little things right. [Read more 🡒]