In a fascinating new column on HoopsHype from big-time player agent Bernie Lee, the longtime player rep shared a compelling story about a meeting with the Celtics and one of his free-agent clients. A big focus has been trying to figure out which mystery player Lee was referring to in the story, but it’s not too difficult to piece this puzzle together.
In the piece, Lee described going into a free agency meeting last summer with “a client I had at the time who had underperformed for years and was going to be on a vastly reduced contract, with the thought that if he could prove he was healthy, his value would return.”
Mystery player is almost certainly Ben Simmons
Let’s attack these clues one by one. “A client I had at the time”. In the summer, Lee had just three active clients: Jimmy Butler, Precious Achiuwa, and Ben Simmons. Butler signed a two-year extension with the Warriors last February after being traded to Golden State, so I think we can safely rule him out. That leaves Achiuwa and Simmons.
“Underperformed for years.” Up to last summer, Achiuwa had averaged a pretty stable 7.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game over his five-year career since being drafted 20th overall in 2020. He wasn’t great with the Knicks last season, but it’s hard to really say he has underperformed for years.
Simmons, on the other hand, was the number one overall pick in 2016, made All-Star teams, All-Defense teams, and an All-NBA team. He was on the verge of superstardom before falling off a cliff, and hasn’t sniffed a meaningful, consistent role in any team’s rotation since 2021. I’d say that qualifies as underperforming for years.
“Vastly reduced contract, with the thought that if he could prove he was healthy, his value would return.” This just makes it more obvious than ever. Before this season, Precious had made roughly $18.5 million over his five-year career, topping out at $6 million last season with the Knicks. It’s hard to vastly reduce that.
Then there’s Simmons, who has made over $200 million in his career, and finally saw his 5-year, $177 million rookie max extension come to an end in 2024. I think we’ve got our smoking gun here. It’s safe to say Simmons was the client meeting with the Celtics last summer.
Celtics wanted to contend, Simmons wanted a tanker
Now, for the hilarious part. The main sentiment of the story was about how impressed Lee was by Mazzulla, and how he quickly realized that the Celtics would never tank. Ironically, and comically, that’s exactly what ruined the meeting.
Lee seemed to be under the impression that the Celtics would embrace the gap year and lean into tanking for a high draft pick. He figured Simmons could eat up some meaningless minutes on a losing team that was going nowhere to try to chase individual stats and restore his image in the league.
But instead, they found out that Mazzulla and Boston were intent on competing for a championship this season, and the meeting obviously ended without a deal.
So, just to recap and make this perfectly clear, as far as I can tell: the Celtics wanted to meet with, and possibly sign Simmons, with the hopes that he could help them compete for a title. Simmons and his agent were hoping he could instead play for a tanking team that wasn’t looking to be competitive.
That misalignment of goals appears to have been the key factor that prevented a deal from getting done, which is just sad and hilarious. There has been a small, obnoxiously loud minority of Celtics fans who have been dying to see Simmons come to Boston for ages. Let’s hope this is the final nail in the coffin for that laughable dream.