After an offseason full of speculation, trade requests and internal friction, the Brooklyn Nets enter the 2022-23 season with their roster largely intact with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving ultimately staying put.
With the dust settled, the Nets will move forward with their Big 3 as currently constructed with Ben Simmons expected to be fit for training camp after undergoing back surgery in May.
Simmons' bizarre absence from the Nets last season and the fact that he hasn't played a competitive game of basketball since June 2021 when his Philadelphia 76ers were dumped out of the postseason by the Atlanta Hawks, has left many questioning how and if he can impact winning for the Nets. To be abundantly clear, much — if not all — of the skepticism heaped upon Simmons is valid and for good reason.
And yet given his injury history and the time that's elapsed since he last played an NBA game, the narrative of Simmons being overrated has now flipped to the point that the Aussie is now one of the most underrated players in the league.
How quick we are to forget?
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In the 'what have you done for me lately?' nature of today's NBA, it's easy to forget that at his best, Simmons is still one of the most destructive players in the league and at 26 years old, he hasn't even scratched the surface of his prime.
Yes, he's a flawed player whose shortcomings seem exacerbated when the stakes get higher. And while it's easy to point to the things Simmons doesn't do on the floor. i.e shoot from deep....or well...shoot at all, we have to look at what Simmons does well and more importantly how those things mesh with the Nets' other players.
"Ben does a thousand things on the basketball court. Shooting is not one that I'm dying to see," Nets head coach Steve Nash said following the trade.
"He is an amazing basketball player, and that's without shooting the ball. So to me there's not a conversation there at all. If he gets better at shooting, great. But he's an All-Star basketball player and has an incredible potential to affect games with all the other things he does. So to be honest with you, it's not a huge concern of mine."
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The 6-foot-10 swiss army knife is one of the most versatile players in the NBA and in the ever-increasing positionless style of play we see today, having a player like Simmons, who can drift between point guard through to center without batting an eye is one of the most valued weapons a team can have.
A true lineup and matchup chameleon, Simmons makes easy what 99% of NBA players can only dream of doing.
Simmons can sleepwalk to triple-doubles and as a starting point for the Nets next season, his elite playmaking, playing alongside so many offensive weapons will make his objectives on the court simple:
- Defend at a high level.
- Create scoring opportunities for others.
The Aussie led the league in passes in his rookie season in 2017-18 (74.1) and between his rookie season and 2020-21, his last healthy campaign, Simmons is second for assists leading to 3-pointers with 996, trailing only Russell Westbrook in that span, per PBP Stats. Chris Paul was the other player to crack 900 dimes leading to threes over those four seasons.
Flanked by Durant, Irving, Seth Curry, Joe Harris and Patty Mills, Simmons has no shortage of dead-eye shooters to create for and the spacing those players will create only opens more lanes for him to do what he does best, getting downhill and attacking the paint.
Those flaws and shortcoming that seem to rear their ugly heads at the wrong moments? The new circumstances in Brooklyn perhaps minimizes those concerns in ways that just weren't possible in Philadelphia.
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With Durant and Irving generating most of their buckets in half-court settings, Simmons' ability to speed up their offense adds a much-needed wrinkle to their game plan, while allowing him to take more of the offensive burden away from their two main stars.
A three-time All-Star, two-time All-Defensive First Team member and Defensive Payer of the Year runner-up (2021), Simmons' biggest impact on the Nets may well come without the ball in his hands. The minute he steps on the floor, he is immediately the team's best (and most versatile) defender.
For a team that ranked 20th in defensive efficiency last season, Simmons' ability to blow up pick-and-rolls with his length and speed while bodying up centers and forwards inside immediately fixes one of their biggest issues from 2021-22, as evidenced by their first-round sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown explored their defensive shortcomings.
Sure, adding Simmons into the fold doesn't automatically put the Nets in the championship window.
But with expectations for the former No. 1 overall pick at an all-time low, the perfect storm is brewing for the Aussie to surprise everyone, including his biggest critics.
