Ben Simmons might be back on the court, but he is not the player he once was, at least scoring wise. Through six games played, he has yet to score in double digits or even bother to shoot over seven times in a single game.
The soap opera around the Brooklyn Nets may be more focused on Kyrie Irving right now, but Simmons is not helping matters when he is on the court.
The Nets’ defense has been dreadful this season and a key reason for that is Ben Simmons has struggled to start the season. Simmons is out right now with a sore knee, which is a concern but not as big as his play so far when healthy.
Simmons is not scoring and still struggling at the free throw line. His play is upsetting the likes of Kevin Durant as well as his other teammates, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski
“Ben Simmons has been a source of frustration for Kevin Durant, for others on the Nets so far, because now he is unable to stay on the floor with a knee injury but prior to that, he has shown that he’s a long way away from being back to an impactful player. It’s a big part of the reason why the Nets are at the bottom of the league defensively and none of this really works.
his team was built and reconstructed around the idea Simmons would play a significant role for this team, especially on the defensive end, especially rebounding the basketball and certainly facilitating the offense.
“There is no indication Ben Simmons is close to being back to anywhere near the player he once was.”
Simmons had an MRI exam on his left knee earlier in the week, and it came up clean.
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When is on the floor, he is averaging 6.2 points per game on 44.1% shooting with all of his points coming in the paint or from the free throw line. Even from there, he is 7-of-15 from the stripe this season.
He is a -53 so far this season, with a G-League player level PER of 9.7.
There’s no way of knowing if he’ll ever return to what he was just a few years ago and it’s looking like this trio of Durant, Irving, and Simmons is going to go down in the dumps.
Who knew criticism of him not shooting a layup in a playoff game would completely destroy him.
