Ben Simmons tears his Achilles, and what it changes in Sacramento

Ben Simmons tore his right Achilles tendon during a live drill at Sacramento's practice on Sunday, October 18, and the Kings said an MRI confirmed it and that he will have surgery. The team gave no timeline, but ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the injury is expected to end his season, and a team source told The Athletic the same. Simmons, who is 30, had missed all of 2025-26 rehabilitating back and leg injuries, signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Kings on September 4, and averaged 10.5 points in 17.5 minutes over two preseason games, according to ESPN.

For most fantasy managers Simmons himself was a last-round flier at best, since our projections, which added him to our player pool only this week, give him 55 games at 25 minutes with 7.3 points and 5.6 assists, 178th on our points board under ESPN's standard scoring and 222nd on our 9-cat board. What matters more is the role he leaves behind. Reporting from the Kings over the past month had him either backing up rookie Darius Acuff Jr. at point guard, as ESPN described his signing, or starting beside him, as ClutchPoints reported on October 12, and in both versions his job was to take some of the ball out of a rookie's hands.

Darius Acuff Jr. has the offense to himself

Acuff was already expected to open the season as Sacramento's starting point guard, and with Simmons gone there is nobody else on the roster built to run the offense. We project him at 29.1 minutes with 14.5 points, 5.0 assists and only 1.4 turnovers, which ranks 147th on our points board against 123rd in the analysts' consensus. The case for him rising is simple: the possessions Simmons would have started have to go somewhere, and the rookie is the obvious place. The risk is the one his Summer League raised, when he shot, according to NBC Sports Bay Area, 27.8% from three and turned it over 3.8 times a game, so a larger share of the ball could also mean a larger share of the mistakes, which costs more in categories than in points.

Malik Monk and the bench minutes

Monk was the player one preview had Simmons competing with for second-unit minutes, and he is the most likely to take the ones Simmons leaves. We project him at 24.1 minutes with 13.5 points, 4.2 assists and 86.7% from the line, 161st on our points board where the consensus has him 189th, which already made him a player we liked more than the analysts did. Domantas Sabonis stays the center of everything Sacramento does, 23rd on our points board and 22nd in the consensus, and nothing about this injury changes his price.

The frontcourt is thin too

The Kings were already short of big men before Sunday, with Maxime Raynaud out at least five games with a right patellar subluxation and Dylan Cardwell expected to miss five or six with a calf strain, according to Fantasy Alarm's injury report of October 15. Simmons was signed to play every position from one to five, so his absence takes away the cover for both of them as well as for Acuff.

What to do

If you drafted Simmons, drop him, since a torn Achilles in October means no return this season by the team's own reporting. Acuff is worth a pick around 120 in a points league now rather than at his consensus price, and Monk is the Kings player to pick up in deeper leagues or to stream in the first week while Raynaud and Cardwell are out. Our projections will read the injury on their next nightly run, and the projections page will show the change when they do.

Every player in this story is on the fantasy basketball rankings and the 2026-27 projections, and the NBA depth charts show where each one stands in his team’s rotation tonight.