The Brooklyn Nets are running out of time to bring back recently acquired Ben Simmons before the end of the regular season.
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Now it appears that Simmons has an irritation of the L-4 disc of the lower spine, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne. Simmons is "hopeful" that he can play a couple of regular-season games before the playoffs begin, but time is not on his side.
The Nets had been hopeful that Simmons would be able to play vs. Portland this week, but he has not been able to go more than a consecutive day or two in rehabilitation without pain flaring up in the lower back and resetting his timeline.
Nets' coach Steve Nash said on Wednesday that Simmons had been given an epidural shot to help with the back's recovery.
"It just depends on the epidural and how he responds," Nash said. "And then they can start to formulate a plan."
It was just a few days ago that Nash admitted that Simmons was still a long way away from a return.
“He’s not ready for even one-on-one, let alone three-on-three, five-on-five,” Nash said. “So he’s got to get to a place where he can go full speed unopposed, 1-on-0, and then we’ll talk about and hopefully quickly he can go to one-on-one, three-on-three, five-on-five."
Simmons has not played an NBA game since a Game 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Simmons had been holding out from the Sixers until he was traded and, upon arriving in Brooklyn, began ramping up his preparation to play for the Nets.
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In the process, Simmons' back tightened up, and the Nets have been cautious in their approach to bringing the three-time All-Star back.
“Yeah, a little setback, whatever that was,” Nash said. “So now we’re just trying to make sure we get that in the bag before we rush him out there and suffer a longer setback.”
Another obstacle on the road to recovery is that the Nets' performance team usually dictates that players make it through three high-intensity workouts without incident before clearing them to play, leaving the team with little margin for error before the regular season ends.
With less than a month of regular-season play remaining, the Nets are running out of time to get Simmons back and integrated within the team before the playoffs start.
As things stand now, Brooklyn would face Toronto in a 7 vs. 8 seed matchup in the Play-In tournament.
