Even Nets players have said a healthy Ben Simmons is the single biggest X factor in their upcoming season.
Now he is finally fit and ready to go.
After a back injury decimated Simmons’ last two seasons, both general manager Sean Marks and coach Jacque Vaughn have said he is ready for the start of training camp next Tuesday with no restrictions, but plenty of hope.
“Ben is playing five-on-five, no restrictions; so he should be ready for training camp. Pretty simple that way, which is good for me to say,” said Vaughn, who added he will give Simmons every opportunity to be the starting point guard.
“It’s fun to see [Simmons] play five-on-five and fun to see him put the work in in the summer,” Marks said. “So we’re all excited to see what translates during camp.”
The Nets have never seen a healthy Simmons.
They acquired him in the deal that sent James Harden to the 76ers at the 2021-22 trade deadline, but Simmons didn’t play a second during that season due to mental health issues and a herniated disk that required surgery.
Rushing his return, Simmons played through pain last season in 42 mostly ineffectual games.
Vaughn couldn’t find a way to use Simmons effectively, and so he didn’t play after Feb. 15 and was shut down in March with a nerve impingement.
The relationship between Simmons and the team became strained, but after Marks and Vaughn visited him repeatedly in Miami, they have a much better rapport now.
“At that time, I was at a place where as a coach I’m always going to have a standard, and that standard is of what I expect guys on the team to do, how we want them to play and ask them to do things for the sake of the team,” Vaughn said. “[Our] relationship is in such a good place right now because we’ve been able to talk through that moment of our lives where I expected him to do things that I’ve come to understand that physically he wasn’t able to do.
“At that time, you kept hearing me talk about force and those things and how I wanted him to play. So now, a revelation where I’ve seen the work he’s put in, where he was at, some of those things have been revealed to me. That’s why our relationship is at a really good place right now. But the things I’m going to ask him to do going forward, he can physically do now.”
A three-time All-Star, Simmons’ career has been derailed by injuries.
Can the Nets get it back on track? And if so, what is his ceiling?
“We know Ben better now as a person and as a player; he’s coming in healthy,” Marks said. “The fact that he’s feeling confident about where he is physically, that’s going to be exciting to go see him in camp and to build out from there. So to put expectations on where he’ll be over the course of season, that’s unfair. This is more get out here and support them and unleash them. If he’s feeling great, fantastic, that’s the whole goal here.”
The only expectation is, that because Simmons is healthy, he has to practice hard and play hard.
“There’s a daily standard for this group that won’t be compromised,” Vaughn said. “There’s a controllable effort and persistence that each individual on this team is just going to have to show up with every night — and he fits into that same bucket.
“There’s two things you’re going to hear me say: Play hard and details. So those two things that he’ll be required to just as every other player. As training camp evolves, as we continue to see groups around him, those answers will reveal itself. When we get to competing against other teams, it’ll reveal itself. So, to be determined.”
Who will play the point also is to be determined.
But if Simmons does what he’s supposed to, he’ll be the lead guard, with Spencer Dinwiddie playing off the ball.
“The agreement is if he’s playing at a consistent and high level then I think our pictures look exactly the same,” Vaughn said. “The biggest thing is if Ben is able to play consistently at a certain way, there’s no doubt he should have the basketball in his hands.”
It may be the biggest thing in the Nets’ entire retooling.