Ben Simmons is expected to be in the Kings’ starting lineup when they open the season October 21, according to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, continuing a remarkable transition back to the NBA after not playing for a year and a half. Simmons didn’t sign with the team until September 7, but he’s reportedly been very impressive in training camp, showing flashes of the talent that made him a three-time All-Star.

Simmons played nine minutes in his preseason debut on Saturday and plans to increase that total to 18 and 27 in a pair of games this week as he ramps up for the regular season. The 30-year-old guard, who spent time as a professional fisherman during his absence from the league, used a fishing analogy to describe the experience.

“Feeling (game action) is a different feeling. It’s like feeling a bite from a fish,” he said. “It’s just two different feelings. This feeling, you can’t replicate. I wasn’t nervous. I was like, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go!’ It feels like the start of a new era after just being away and coming back, which is really cool and a good feeling to have.”

Simmons will tell his story in depth on “Being Ben,” an ESPN documentary that debuts on Sunday. He talks about the extreme highs and lows of his career and tries to clear up misconceptions about his relationship with basketball.

“What I want people to take from it is that away from the game, I am who I am,” Simmons said. “But I do love the game. I wouldn’t have gone through all this (rehabilitation) to not play. I love this game. I love playing. I love competing. And my game is my game.”

There’s more from Sacramento:

• In the latest edition of his podcast (Twitter link), Draymond Green relays some guidance he offered to Kings rookie guard Darius Acuff Jr. during a preseason game. “My advice to him was just ‘hey man, who else touched the ball that possession?’, he’s like ‘nobody’ and I was like ‘don’t have many of those’ because you can end up having a bunch of those with the Sacramento Kings this year and a few things can happen,” Green said. “You can get guys start plotting against you, guys that don’t really wanna see you do well, guys that start bickering on the side to other guys … you can get guys that get upset like ‘aahh man they wanna give this rookie this, they wanna do that, f**k that!’ … and so for me when I saw that, I just wanted to give him a little game.”
• Dylan Cardwell sat out Monday’s practice with soreness in his left calf, while Malik Monk is still dealing with ankle soreness and hopes to play in a preseason game soon, per Sean Cunningham of KCRA (Twitter link).
• Zach Lowe of The Ringer reported on his podcast that what owner Vivek Ranadive intended to be a motivational speech at a recent team event “kind of turned the dinner into a roast,” relays Kurt Helin of NBC Sports. Ranadive apparently was trying to show how outsiders regard the organization, but Lowe says some people at the dinner were “alarmed” by his comments.