At this point in time, with the second half of the 2023-24 NBA regular season officially underway, the Brooklyn Nets will be competing to get in the Play-In Tournament, with the team hovering around the 10th and 11th spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Nets may have shown some promise to finish last season, with Mikal Bridges and Cam Thomas looking like stars on the rise in Brooklyn, but this year, the team has failed to live up to expectations with one half of the season in the books.
One of the reasons the team hasn’t been able to reach its true potential has been the absence of Ben Simmons, who has played only six games this season, even though he showed signs of progress in those games.
According to Tim Bontemps of ESPN, Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has already ruled out Simmons’ return this week and wouldn’t say if he’d be back on the basketball floor for Brooklyn next week.
Jacque Vaughn says Ben Simmons will not play this week. Declined to say whether that means he could return next week, but says he continues to make progress.
Simmons has been out since Nov. 6.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) January 23, 2024
In the six games he’s played this season, the veteran guard averaged 6.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game while shooting 52.8% from the floor.
With a healthy and motivated Simmons on the floor for the Nets, Brooklyn has a much different outlook for the season, as he could be a game-changer for this team like he was for the Philadelphia 76ers while playing alongside Joel Embiid.
However, the constant injury issues have made it difficult to see whether he’ll make an impact in Brooklyn moving forward, as this could be the norm for him for the rest of his career.
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Graphic Shows Staggering Amount Of Games Ben Simmons Has Missed