JULY 15, 12:34pm: The breakdown for Simmons’ deal is $6.3MM the first year, declining to $6MM and $5.7MM in the last two years of the contract, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The final year is partially guaranteed at $1MM, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter link).
JULY 14th, 3:25pm: Simmons’ three-year deal is worth $20MM, according to Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). That should leave a little cap room for the Magic after they complete the signing.
2:42pm: The Magic have reached an agreement with Jonathon Simmons and will sign the free agent swingman to a three-year contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical. The deal will be fully guaranteed, tweets TNT’s David Aldridge. Because the Spurs withdrew their qualifying offer for Simmons on Thursday, Orlando can sign him outright as an unrestricted free agent.
A former undrafted free agent out of Houston, Simmons played a career-high 78 games for the Spurs last season, averaging 6.2 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 1.6 APG in part-time minutes for the club. Simmons also took on a larger role in the postseason, averaging 15.3 PPG and 3.3 APG in the Warriors’ four-game sweep of the Spurs and entering the starting lineup after Kawhi Leonard went down.
Simmons began the month as a restricted free agent, having received a modest qualifying offer from the Spurs. San Antonio was said to be preparing an offer in the range of $9MM annually for Simmons, but it’s not clear if that offer ever materialized. The Kings, Clippers, Knicks, and Timberwolves were among the teams that expressed interest in Simmons during his restricted free agency, but by the time the Spurs renounced his rights on Thursday, most of those clubs had used up all their cap room.
San Antonio’s decision to pull its qualifying offer before Thursday’s deadline was a bit of a surprise, but it reportedly came after a request from Simmons’ camp. Prior to renouncing Simmons, the Spurs were said to have explored a sign-and-trade scenario that would have sent him to Phoenix for Tyson Chandler, but San Antonio balked at taking on Chandler’s contract.
As for the Magic, they have been fairly quiet so far in free agency — outside of Shelvin Mack, no veteran free agents have signed with the team. Orlando’s new top decision-makers, Jeff Weltman and John Hammond, are known for their willingness to roll the dice on upside, however, and even though Simmons will turn 28 in September, he’s considered a player who has the potential to improve and play a larger role for a team. The Magic have about $8MM in cap room and could open up a little more by waiving non-guaranteed contracts, so it appears they’ll use most or all of that space to lock up Simmons.
Simmons’ path to the NBA was an unusual one. As detailed by Michael C. Wright in an excellent ESPN feature, the 6’6″ guard paid $150 back in 2013 to participate in an open D-League tryout. Less than four years later, he’s on the verge of finalizing his first huge NBA payday.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wow Orlando is going to be crazy on defense.
Yeah now they can lose games 85-75 instead of 95-75.
Look at the potential on defense, Jonathan Isaac,Elfryd Payton,Aaron Gordon,Bismack
Biyombo. All play will play under Vogel a defensive coach, they just have to worry about whos stepping up on offense.
Okay I’m sorry you are right. Let’s make the losses 80-75 instead.
They’ll hover around 33-43 wins.
not a chance magic homer. lets be honest, magic will be a lottery team with a legitimate shot at the top pick. nets will lock up worst record but the magic are probably the 2nd worst team in the east next year. they wont get anywhere near 35 wins and even 30 is a big stretch.
bulls and knicks will probably be near the bottom as well but magic didnt reach 30 wins last year. isaac may be good but not right away, so you cant expect simmons and mack to be the difference makers who come in and add an extra 7+ wins from last year
Dude averaged 6 points in 19 min for the Spurs. Vogel offenses are horrible. Simmons is a nice bench buy and as a Spurs fan I’ll miss him. But dude is 27 not improving physically. Hopefully gets a shot and then he can do well.
Do you actually think Isaac is going to be a good defender as a rookie? He’ll be 20 when the season starts and is listed at 6’11” 205 lol
That was a pretty good investment for Simmons lol
Oh no Simmons was perfect for Pops System to play … **** Orlando is boring
Noooooo way I really hope he isn’t making 8million to be on the Magic smh. Especially knowing the Spurs offer was said to be around 9m. I really wanted to see him on a winning team or at least get paid more than that.
Probably was like 1 year 9 M from the Spurs.
Wish the knicks signed him, but once we got hardaway I knew we wouldn’t
Money ended up on the lower end of what I thought he would get. I’m surprised the Spurs didn’t want him back. He fit really well, especially after they kept Mills and added Rudy Gay, amd I thought his role would increase.
Good deal for Orlando. They need to be looking to move their bigs somehow, and they need more shooting
The scuttlebutt was that he and Pops didn’t get along too well. Reports were that Pops didn’t like his relatively flashy demeanor, nor when he would taunt the opposing teams players. For example, there was a dunk Simmons had made, and apparently afterwards he stared down the opposing defender. Also, Simmons wanted a bugger role during the season, and relatively felt like he was being held back in Pops’ system.
This was all mere speculation, from what I gathered, but it certainly does make me think there’s a little truth to it, considering the low cost deal Simmons signed with Orlando…
Idk, but I, myself, found it a bit shocking as to why the Spurs would just let him go, especially for that cheap of a price…So, I did some research, and that’s what I found out…Hopefully, this will help someone else maybe, if you were as dumbfounded about the move as I was…
Shocking Spurs let a guy walk instead of paying him. They seem to know what they are doing.
I have a hard time buying the dunk story. That doesn’t seem like the type of thing that would bother Popovich. Simmons plays hard and plays with a fire. That’s a good thing.
Bryn forbes and Derrick white can space the floor better for kawhi. Simmons just a younger Tony Allen. I see pop finding a guy who can average 6 points a game for cheaper that isn’t already 27 and can grow more.
I could care less about his PPG avg, especially in the role he played last year…Dude is all over the floor defensively. Super active. He’s really athletic, and doesn’t have nearly as much ware on his body for his age. Forbes and White aren’t the athletes he is, and White is a rookie.
He can’t shoot the 3 consistently yet, and there were times SA were swinging the ball around and no one was on the court to hit a shot… Need more shooting around Leonard and Aldridge
Very happy with this pickup as a Magic fan. Best FA signing in years. I still think we will have the first pick in the draft, unless this team shocks me, but that’s ok. We need a star in Orlando as we haven’t had one in many years.