The last three years have been rough, to say the least, for three-time NBA All-Star Ben Simmons and the Brooklyn Nets, as he has been unable to contribute consistently on the basketball floor because of persistent injuries.
Since being traded to the Nets by the Philadelphia 76ers in the deal that sent James Harden to the City of Brotherly Love, Simmons has played a total of 57 games for Brooklyn over the course of three seasons, which isn’t ideal for the franchise.
Heading into the 2024-25 NBA regular season, Simmons has been filmed working on his game in the gym, which has become a trend with the veteran and not a great look for a player considered one of the best defensive players in the league.
Unsurprisingly, Simmons has gotten a lot of heat for having another video surfacing about him working out in the offseason, which has prompted the team to come to his defense, with Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez claiming the 28-year-old has been hard at work this summer to get right for the upcoming season via NBA Central.
“A healthy Ben Simmons is a very, very, very, very good basketball player. Three-time All-Star. And that’s what we’ve got right now. We have a healthy Ben, who has been working really hard the whole summer,” Fernandez said.
Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez says that Ben Simmons is back to being healthy
“A healthy Ben Simmons is a very, very, very, very good basketball player. 3x All-Star. And that’s what we’ve got right now. We have a healthy Ben, who has been working really hard the whole summer.”… pic.twitter.com/mD3R56dBJM
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 9, 2024
At this point, the Nets brass would be better off saying nothing about Simmons and letting his game dictate where he is at and whether he can still be an impact player on the basketball court at the NBA level.
If Simmons can turn back to the clock, the Nets might be better than expected, but there’s no telling what the future holds for the once-promising star, who will be playing in a make-or-break season while playing on the last year of his contract with Brooklyn.
NEXT: Nets Are Signing Free Agent Guard
