Research cutoff: July 18, 2026. Team: Philadelphia 76ers. Role: sixth guard, movement shooter, and second-unit creator.
2026-27 projection
| GP | MPG | FG% (FGM/FGA) | FT% (FTM/FTA) | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 23.0 | .440 (4.0/9.1) | .890 (0.9/1.0) | 2.2 | 11.1 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 |
Simons's 2025-26 baseline was roughly 55 games and 24.9 minutes: .440/.896, 2.7 threes, 14.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.5 steals, 0.1 blocks, and 1.3 turnovers. Philadelphia reduces shots and minutes but preserves his specialist strengths. Hashtag dynasty/stat page, updated July 2, 2026
Role and category profile
- Contract/role: Philadelphia reportedly signed Simons for two years and $12.3 million with a 2027-28 player option. He backs up both guard spots and can close for shooting, but Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, and Jaylen Brown block starter volume. NBA signing report, July 2, 2026
- 9-cat: 3PM and positive FT% are the draft reasons. Low rebounds, steals, and blocks impose a ceiling; FG% is neutral at reduced volume. The low-turnover projection is useful.
- Points: limited stocks and assists make a pick 120-180 profile. Bonus-heavy three-point systems help; minutes and missed games hurt.
- Dynasty: Hashtag listed him 155th. A player option, age-prime shooting, and possible 2027 role change support a top-140-to-200 range, but this season is not built for a breakout. Hashtag dynasty
Floor, base, ceiling
- Floor: outside the top 200 if the wrist lingers, minutes fall below 20, and Labaron Philon Jr. wins the reserve-creator role.
- Base: picks 130-185 in 9-cat; roughly 11 points and 2.2 threes as a specialist.
- Ceiling: top 90-120 if Embiid/one guard misses extended time and Simons reaches 28 minutes with 16-plus points.
Health and uncertainty
A fractured left wrist kept Simons out after February 21 and ended his season. NBA player news reported him out for the final games on April 10; no accessible July source explicitly declared him fully cleared. A wrist injury is especially relevant to his core fantasy skill, so the 60-game/23-minute projection is more cautious than the salary alone. NBA player page/news, April 10, 2026
Alex Barutha included Simons in a July 18 rebound watch after a down 2025-26 eight-category per-game result. That is an analyst watchlist, not a projection. Barutha post, July 18, 2026
Confidence
| Component | Confidence | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Bench role | Medium-high | Clear fit but many guards |
| Shooting rates | Medium | Strong history, wrist adds uncertainty |
| Minutes | Medium-low | Closing lineup and Philon development |
| Games played | Low-medium | No explicit July clearance found |
Career record
Pre-NBA: no college. Simons played at Edgewater High School in Orlando, averaging 23.8 points as a senior, then took a postgraduate year at IMG Academy in Bradenton, where he averaged 22.4 points and 6.7 rebounds. He had committed to Louisville and decommitted amid that program's recruiting scandal, then declared directly for the draft under the extra-year-of-schooling exception — the third player since 2015 to reach the NBA without college. There is no overseas or G-League record of consequence. Draft: 2018, first round, 24th overall, Portland. Not traded on draft night; he spent seven seasons with the Blazers.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 19 | POR | 20 | 7.1 | 3.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.5 | .444 | .563 | 0.6 |
| 2019-20 | 20 | POR | 70 | 20.7 | 8.3 | 2.2 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.1 | .399 | .826 | 0.9 |
| 2020-21 | 21 | POR | 64 | 17.3 | 7.8 | 2.2 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.9 | .419 | .807 | 0.7 |
| 2021-22 | 22 | POR | 57 | 29.5 | 17.3 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 3.1 | .443 | .888 | 2.0 |
| 2022-23 | 23 | POR | 62 | 35.0 | 21.1 | 2.6 | 4.1 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 3.4 | .447 | .894 | 2.1 |
| 2023-24 | 24 | POR | 46 | 34.4 | 22.6 | 3.6 | 5.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 3.4 | .430 | .916 | 2.7 |
| 2024-25 | 25 | POR | 70 | 32.7 | 19.3 | 2.7 | 4.8 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 3.1 | .426 | .902 | 2.0 |
| 2025-26 | 26 | BOS/CHI | 55 | 24.9 | 14.3 | 2.5 | 2.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 2.7 | .440 | .896 | 1.2 |
| Career | 444 | 26.6 | 14.9 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 2.5 | .432 | .881 | 1.6 |
The 2025-26 split: 49 games with Boston at 24.5 minutes for 14.2 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.7 threes on .440/.889, then six games with Chicago at 28.3 minutes for 15.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists on .438. He reached Boston in the July 2025 Jrue Holiday trade and went to Chicago on February 5, 2026 in the Nikola Vucevic deal. He won the 2021 Slam Dunk Contest.
Fantasy history: exact season-end 9-category ranks are not publicly verifiable and I will not invent them. The shape is unusually consistent and easy to read from the box score. From 2021-22 through 2024-25 he was a genuine standard-league category asset built on two elite columns — 3.1 to 3.4 threes per game and free-throw percentage between .888 and .916 on real volume — against three dead columns in rebounds, steals and blocks, with a field-goal percentage that hovered at or just below neutral. That combination lands in the top-50-to-top-80 band rather than higher, because the punt-resistant categories he wins are the same two everyone can stream. 2023-24 was his statistical peak on a per-game basis and 2024-25 his most valuable in aggregate because he played 70 games. 2025-26 was the down year the dossier's rebound-watch note refers to: the same rates on a third fewer shots. The points-league shape is materially better than the category shape in his volume seasons — 19 to 22 points with 3-plus threes and 4-plus assists plays well in points formats, where his empty rebound and stock columns cost nothing — but 2025-26 flattened that edge too.
Durability: GP by season — 20, 70, 64, 57, 62, 46, 70, 55. The rookie 20 is role, not health. 2023-24 (46 games) is the worst case and the most instructive: a thumb issue in late October 2023, illnesses in late December and January, a rib problem in late January, an ankle in early February, then a knee that recurred three times in March and closed the season. 2024-25 was his healthiest stretch at 70 games despite a chest issue in November, elbow and back in January, and hand and forearm problems in March. 2025-26 ended abruptly: a fractured left wrist dated February 21, 2026, six games after the Chicago trade, and he did not return. He has cleared 65 games in only three of eight seasons.
Trajectory: The leap was 2021-22, and it was pure opportunity — Portland shut down its veterans, Simons went from 17.3 minutes to 29.5, and the scoring line more than doubled. The important detail is that the efficiency came with it rather than collapsing under the new load: he shot .443 with 3.1 threes and .888 from the line in his first season of real usage, which is what separated him from the standard empty-volume case. He then held roughly that per-minute profile for three more years at 32 to 35 minutes. What the arc does not show is growth. Per-36 scoring has been essentially flat since 2021-22, the assist rate rose only when Damian Lillard left and fell back the moment he rejoined a functional roster, and the defensive counting stats have never moved off the floor. At 27 he is exactly at the aging-curve point where a non-defending combo guard's value stops being about skill and starts being about role, and his role just got worse twice in twelve months — bench minutes in Boston, six games in Chicago, and now a two-year deal in Philadelphia behind Maxey, Brown and Edgecombe. The 2025-26 rates held up fine, so the shooting is not the concern; the minutes and the wrist are. Treat him as a threes-and-free-throws specialist whose realistic 2026-27 outcome is another sub-25-minute season, with the upside case dependent entirely on injuries ahead of him.
Career sources: ESPN career stats, StatMuse per-game by season, Wikipedia, FOX Sports injury log, ESPN trade report, February 2026
Open questions
- Is the fractured wrist fully cleared for unrestricted camp work?
- Does Simons close over Edgecombe or the starting power forward?
- Will the 2027-28 player option motivate a larger creation role or a trade?
Related: Philadelphia 76ers · Tyrese Maxey · VJ Edgecombe · Labaron Philon Jr