Ben Simmons is taking issues in the future at a time on the new-look Nets
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The Brooklyn Nets are rebuilding. A take a look at the roster makes {that a} pretty goal assertion. They’re the one staff within the NBA that doesn’t have both a participant who was an All-Star in one of many previous three seasons or a lottery choose from one of many previous three drafts. Brooklyn missed the playoffs final season for the primary time in six years. New head coach Jordi Fernández, an assistant with the Sacramento Kings the previous two seasons and the top coach of the Canadian males’s nationwide staff, is the franchise’s fifth head coach since 2020.
Additionally rebuilding? Ben Simmons, the primary choose of the 2016 NBA Draft who got here to Brooklyn in the midst of the 2021-22 season through commerce after beginning an accolade-filled profession with the Philadelphia 76ers. Simmons was a star in Philadelphia for a perennial playoff staff. He gained Rookie of the 12 months in 2018 following a redshirt first season as a professional after foot surgical procedure, made the 2020 All-NBA staff and was named to a number of All-Defensive groups, the final coming in 2021. He signed a five-year, $170 million contract extension in 2019, a deal that expires within the 2025 offseason.
Simmons, nevertheless, hasn’t been capable of play a lot for the Nets. He was on the ground for the top-seed Sixers when the Atlanta Hawks pulled the second-round upset in Recreation 7 in 2021. Since then, he’s solely performed 57 video games and had two again surgical procedures.
Simmons made his newest return to play this week close to San Diego in Brooklyn’s preseason opener. He scored two factors, grabbed two rebounds and had three assists and a steal in a 115-106 Nets loss to the LA Clippers. It was his first sport since Feb. 26.
“I’m excited, I’m excited to construct with these guys,” Simmons instructed The Athletic after Tuesday’s sport. “Clearly, we don’t have a staff that’s been collectively too lengthy, so it’s a brand new expertise for me. Plenty of youthful guys. However I’m wanting ahead to constructing with this staff. I believe Jordi speaks about 1 p.c every day, getting higher, and everybody shopping for in and shopping for into the ideas and listening and seeing the place it takes us.”
How Simmons is used has all the time been fascinating. Regardless of his 6-foot-10 body, he was all the time a place to begin guard in Philadelphia, and at his finest, he was a participant offensively who might get to the free-throw line at a excessive charge, end effectively and rack up assists. Defensively, Simmons was able to guarding a wide range of positions and rebounding like a succesful massive, however he additionally was among the many league’s finest in steals, main the NBA in 2020. One of the best model of Simmons is one who controls tempo. The best criticism of his sport is his poor capturing from 3 (solely made 5 profession 3s, none in Brooklyn) and the free-throw line (made solely 59.7 p.c in Philadelphia, 43.1 p.c in Brooklyn).
Simmons has been a shell of himself in his time with the Nets, averaging solely 6.7 factors and 0.8 steals. In 12 of the 57 video games he’s performed, Simmons has come off the bench, and his outlook as a starter appears questionable this season. Not solely do the Nets have level guard Dennis Schröder, however 25-year-old middle Nic Claxton simply received a four-year, $97 million deal. Claxton is considered one of three gamers nonetheless on the Nets from when Simmons was traded there (together with Cam Thomas and Day’Ron Sharpe), and Claxton and Simmons had been incompatible collectively final season. In 99 minutes with Claxton and Simmons sharing the ground, the Nets had been outscored by 51 factors and scored solely 95.8 factors per 100 possessions.
GO DEEPER
From Barcelona to Paris to Brooklyn, Jordi Fernández has grinded for his basketball life
Claxton was out for Tuesday’s preseason sport with a hamstring damage, and it allowed Fernández to incorporate Simmons with the opposite 4 anticipated starters (Schröder, Thomas, Cameron Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith). It’s clear Fernández has excessive expectations for Simmons.
“A wholesome Ben Simmons is a really, very, very, excellent basketball participant, a three-time All-Star,” Fernández mentioned earlier than Tuesday’s sport. “And that’s what we received proper now, we have now a wholesome Ben that has been working actually arduous the entire summer time. He’s finished an amazing job getting his physique able to play. And I’m very excited now to see some extent guard on the court docket. … We need to play quick, and no one higher than him to rebound, push, throw the ball forward, contact the paint, spray the ball, play with a excessive IQ. So I’m very excited.”
Defensively, Fernández mentioned Simmons is “constructed like a truck,” and he needs Simmons to be an asset guarding a number of positions, create stops with steals and rebounds and play within the open ground as a lot as doable.
“He’s multi-positional, proper?” Fernández mentioned. “I need to see that function. Communication, physicality, and as soon as once more, end possessions after which run the opposite method.”
Rim safety is the one a part of Simmons’ defensive sport that’s not a power; he has a comparatively quick wingspan and has by no means averaged greater than 0.9 blocks per sport in a season. Simmons allowed solely 57.5 p.c on photographs on the rim in 2022-23, at 3.0 contests per sport. However opponents shot 82.9 p.c on photographs on the rim defended by Simmons final season. Simmons believes his expertise might help him be a greater defender at middle going ahead.
“I’m an older man now,” mentioned Simmons, who turned 28 this summer time. “I’m fairly sturdy down there. … I’m all the time up for that problem. I believe it’s simply a type of issues the place, in case your identify known as to do a job, then you definately step up and try to do it to the most effective of your capability. In order that’s what I’m going to do each evening and try to contribute and do the most effective I can.”
What Simmons can do to remain on the ground and contribute is simply part of the Simmons expertise, although. He’s a former All-Star and prime choose of the draft and the Nets’ highest-paid participant, making simply over $40 million this season. His talent set and availability will all the time come beneath scrutiny from outdoors.
When Simmons got here to Brooklyn, he was teammates with multi-time All-Stars equivalent to Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond and LaMarcus Aldridge and coached by a Corridor of Fame participant in Steve Nash. That staff’s finest shot disintegrated the second Simmons was unable to debut for the Nets throughout the 2022 postseason.
“I believe that, you recognize, profitable’s not simple,” Simmons mentioned. “I believe there are particular gamers that add to profitable. I believe that I’m a type of guys that may contribute to a profitable staff. I believe there’s a number of issues I can do on the court docket, all through the sport, which have profitable impacts. And that’s what I’m about, is making an influence on the ground to win video games, it doesn’t matter what it’s.”
Fernández is happy with the place Simmons is bodily and that he’s displaying up day by day. And Fernández needs to give attention to that, not the surface noise that appears to be louder than Simmons’ precise play and attributes.
“My relationship with Ben to date, it’s by no means been — we’ve by no means talked about media or outdoors speak,” Fernández mentioned. “I need him to be a frontrunner by instance, and I need him to do the fitting issues. I need him to point out how good of a basketball participant he’s. To me, the principle concern has been his well being. And like I mentioned earlier than, a wholesome Ben Simmons is a really, excellent participant. That’s what I give attention to.”
It stays to be seen what Simmons can do for any staff going ahead, not to mention the motley crew of elements Brooklyn has assembled because it goes right into a season with its lowest expectations in eight years. However Simmons can’t fear about issues he can’t management. He’s merely glad to be wholesome and to see the place this season takes him.
“Simply rising every sport, simply getting increasingly more comfy, that’s about it,” Simmons mentioned. “I believe simply over time, I get higher over time. Whenever you cease taking part in basketball for a bit of bit, it takes a bit of bit to get right into a rhythm and stepping into your circulate. That’s what I’m enthusiastic about. Simply persevering with to work every day. It may not present up the following day, however over time, finally.”
(High picture: Wendell Cruz / Imagn Pictures)
