One step-back fadeaway in a preseason game is a screensaver.
Ben Simmons knocked down a step-back jumper off the dribble against Golden State, played nine minutes, and finished with seven points on 2-of-4 shooting, three made free throws, and one assist. The clip did numbers. People started typing the word "prime." I felt a jolt watching it too. Then I remembered what year it is and who we're talking about.
We've been here before. Every offseason of Simmons' career has produced some version of this highlight: a flash of touch, a made shot that shouldn't look so surprising from a former No. 1 pick, and a wave of "he finally figured it out." Back in 2019 he drilled a preseason three against a touring team and the city of Philadelphia nearly levitated. It amounted to nothing. That pattern is the actual record. Simmons flashes a jumper when the lights are dim, and it leaves when the lights come on.
Nine minutes in a preseason loss doesn't move me, and it shouldn't move you either. Preseason basketball counts for nothing. There are no standings, no stats that stick, and no defender closing out like his playoff bonus depends on it. A fadeaway over a rotation body in October tells you a man can make a shot in October. It doesn't tell you he'll take that shot, let alone make it, on the second night of a back-to-back in February with a game actually hanging on it.
Simmons has reasons for the long absences that have nothing to do with effort. The back problems are real and brutal: a herniated disc, nerve impingement, a microscopic partial discectomy, the kind of pain he's described as not being able to walk around. The mental health struggle he went through in Philadelphia was real too, and he was failed in how it was handled. He hasn't played an NBA game since April 2025. If anyone has earned the benefit of the doubt on the human stuff, it's him.
Benefit of the doubt on his body and his head doesn't mean believing the jump shot is fixed. Those are separate questions, and only one of them gets answered by a highlight. You can root for the man and still refuse to buy the mirage.
The hopeful case: this time is structurally different. No max contract hanging over him, no franchise-savior expectations, a pay cut down to around $3.5 million, a quiet summer, and a low-pressure landing spot. Confidence rebuilt away from the spotlight that used to crush him. Maybe the shot that always cracked under weight holds now that the weight is gone. It's a real argument, and I'd love to be wrong.
I'm just not betting on it off one clip, and neither is Sacramento. The Kings are ramping him up cautiously, by their own account. They've seen the tape. They know what roughly $200 million and nine years in this league have and haven't produced from this player. Their own plan is the tell: if they thought the jumper was back for good, they wouldn't be handling him like glass.
Watch what he does when the games count. Watch whether he even hunts that shot once a real defender is daring him to take it. Simmons can make jumpers; he's just never been willing to shoot them. A made fadeaway in preseason doesn't fix the yips. The regular season will, or it'll do what it always does and make this clip disappear by Thanksgiving.
