ORLANDO — Ben Simmons had successful microscopic partial discectomy Thursday morning to alleviate the nerve impingement in his lower back.
The procedure was performed by Dr. Timur Urakov, in consultation with Dr. Barth Green, at UHealth Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
Simmons had already been shut down for the rest of the season by the Nets, and Thursday the team announced the surgery.
Brooklyn did not offer a timeline for his recovery, but the team said Simmons is expected to make a full recovery in time for training camp next season.
The surgery — performed in Miami, where Simmons did his rehab — appears to be a less severe version of his earlier discectomy in May 2022, and on the left side as opposed to the original right side.
If he’s back for camp as the team expects, it also implies a much shorter recovery timeline.
Simmons was limited to just 15 games this season, averaging 6.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 23.9 minutes.
“I hope his mental is fine,” Mikal Bridges had said after Simmons was shut down for the season. “I just know getting hurt isn’t fun at all. It gets with you mentally, so hope he’s just all right and just hope [for a] speedy recovery.
“It’s tough. You don’t wish that on nobody. … So just hope he’s good up top in his head. I know it’s tough wanting to be out there and working to get back and then being out, so hopefully he’s all right.”
Simmons is the only player on the Nets’ roster who has made an All-Star team, and he’s made three of them, and been Defensive Player of the Year runner-up.
Much of what fired Jacque Vaughn planned to do this season was built around Simmons.
Now Brooklyn will have paid Simmons over $86 million for two-plus seasons — $73,342,080 the past two seasons and roughly $13 million from the 2021-22 season in which they acquired him.
And he will have played just 57 of 192 regular-season games — and none of their eight playoffs tilts — since arriving.
“Look, the reality is, is that when you have a guy like Ben, he’s only playing so many games, people forget that he’s on the roster,” said Hornets coach Steve Clifford, a former Nets assistant. “And you’re not going to be nearly the team you can when you have an All-Star caliber player making that much a part of the salary cap not playing much. It’s just the way it is.
“What happens is when guys get hurt are out for the seasons and they don’t play much, it’s easy for fans to look at it and say they forget about it. But you can’t make up for that. The cap is the cap. He’s a terrific player. He’s hurt, he hasn’t been able to play much. He just makes a huge difference.”