Getty Things haven't been easy for Ben Simmons to start the year.
The Brooklyn Nets have a new big three in town with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant joining forces with Ben Simmons, but things haven’t necessarily gone according to plan.
Simmons came over last season in the James Harden deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, but he didn’t actually start playing with the team until this season. As a result, it’s been over a year since Simmons last played basketball, and the rust has started to show.
He’s playing a totally different role in Brooklyn as instead of being a focal point on offense, he’s playing more of a playmaker role and looks to factor in as the team’s third option going forward.
Despite that, he has struggled and is only averaging 5.7 points per game, by far a career low. While that number will likely rise as the season progresses, there are already alarm bells being rung by analysts.
Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless called out Simmons on the October 25 episode of “Undisputed” with some harsh words.
Bayless Sends Message to Simmons
Simmons is only attempting 4.3 shots per game with the Nets so far, so his scoring average is right in line with that type of production, however, Bayless thinks something else is going on behind the scenes.
“Ben Simmons looks like he’s trying to relearn how to play basketball,” he said. “I don’t see any passion, urgency or intensity – he just drifts through the game.”
Perhaps more alarmingly, Simmons has fouled out of two of three games he’s played in, so those fouls will have to come down or the Nets could be in trouble going forward. Bayless did have praise for him in the preseason, but it looks like that has now dried up.
“I saw one flash in one preseason game from Ben Simmons where he looked like Ben Simmons,” he said. “Since then he’s reverted to a guy who forgot how to play basketball.”
It is still very early into the season, so raising the alarm right now could prove to be premature, but the Nets won’t want to dig themselves into a big hole too early on.
The playmaking from Simmons has been encouraging early on as he’s averaging seven assists per game, so he doesn’t seem like he’s having any problem setting up Irving and Durant for good shots.
Up and Down Start
Ben Simmons admits he’s rusty, but also acknowledges he has to be more aggressive. Teams laying off him is going to be a thing until he does. The #Nets are -45 so far in his first 83 minutes.
For a team that has as much offensive firepower as the Nets, it’s a possibility they could outscore a team on any given night and win games that way.
The loss against the Grizzlies proved that won’t always be the case as both Irving and Durant put up 37 points and Brooklyn still lost by double digits.
Again, it’s still early and the team is getting to know each other. Simmons will provide more of a scoring punch as the season goes on, and perhaps he could even get back into the Defensive Player of the Year conversation. Defense was a cause of concern for the team coming in the season, and it doesn’t look like they’ve done much to alleviate that so far.
With 79 games to go, there’s still plenty of time for things to get turned around.