2023-10-21 15:10:35
NEW YORK (AP) — The scouts’ report is very similar to the one they used to describe Ben Simmons when he was elected to the All-Star Game with Philadelphia and not like now that he is a substitute in Brooklyn.
“I’m still fast, I can still jump, I’m still strong,” Simmons said.
It wasn’t like that last season.
Not when he was ineffective when he returned from back surgery and so Simmons mightn’t even protest when he was moved from his usual position and eventually left out of Nets coach Jacque Vaughn’s rotation.
“It’s hard for a coach to trust you and believe in you when he doesn’t even see you,” Simmons admitted. “And I’m not able to do it physically and he can’t see me, as a coach I would do the same: ‘Well, I’m not going to make you play if you can’t compete and if you can’t do what I know you can do.’”
Simmons’ relationship with Vaughn appears to be repaired, as does his body.
Back as a point guard, Simmons has moved with agility and determination in the preseason following playing just 42 games the last two seasons. The Nets are hoping that even though they are without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, they will have the old Ben Simmons back.
“He looks fit, confident and very aggressive and it seems like they have a number of things going for him,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said.
That was apparent from the Nets’ first exhibition game when Simmons outplayed LeBron James to the basket once morest the Lakers in Las Vegas.
If Simmons can keep up the pace when the games start counting, Brooklyn will have a player like few others, a 7-foot-1 point guard who is fast enough to outrun most of his opponents on offense and strong enough to protect any defensive position.
But if Simmons plays like the last two seasons, when he mightn’t play due to mental health and then physical health, they will have a player who is owed more than 78 million dollars in two years and who is 5 of 36 from three.
“He needs to get his explosion back and the only thing I wonder is if he can get it back,” said Doc Rivers, former Sixers coach and current ESPN analyst.
Simmons underwent a microdiscectomy in May 2022 and as he regained his fitness, Simmons began having knee and calf problems that led him to miss 20 games before nerve compression in his back ended his season. in March
Vaughn, who replaced Steve Nash last November, decided early on that he mightn’t wait for Simmons.
It wasn’t until this summer, out of the stress of the campaign, that Vaughn realized that Simmons wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but that he mightn’t. Vaughn visited Simmons during a practice in Miami and now they say their relationship is better.
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