Fernandez Can’t Allow Simmons To Be A Nets Culture Killer

Bill Streicher—Imagn Images

My first day of training to be an accountant revolved around a simple formula: Assets minus liabilities equals net worth. Its relevance meant it would be drilled into us all year.

The same equation can be applicable to evaluating basketball players. The skills, both fundamental and intangible, that are in your bag less your weaknesses brings you to your “value” to your team. Be it businesses or NBA players, the goal is to be on the plus side of the ledger.

In the case of mercurial Ben Simmons, he has been, except for a few outliers, a drag on Brooklyn’s performance this season. He is by no means bereft of assets—he’s good for a few “wow” passes a night and pushes pace—and he is clearly not the only team member culpable for Brooklyn’s string of six losses in its last eight games. But his liabilities way too often get in the way of the Nets’ functionality.

I can say with certainty that Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernandez is not in on the tanking plan so many of the team’s fans have embraced, but bringing Simmons into a close game in the fourth quarter, as he did during Brooklyn’s 113-98 defeat in Philadelphia on Friday night (with fellow non-shooter Nic Claxton also on the floor, no less) was the perfect unintentional tank move. How Fernandez could justify that to such players like Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith who have been playing their hearts out in an impossible situation is his problem now.

For Simmons’ abhorrent efforts on Friday night cannot be excused, not even by the debilitating back woes that required a second surgery in March. Forget about returning to the form that made him a three-time NBA All-Star while with the Sixers prior to his trade to Brooklyn in the 2022 James Harden blockbuster; he’s too often making plays that would get a middle schooler benched.

In the first five minutes alone on Friday, Simmons watched aimlessly as his man Kelly Oubre beat him back door for an and-1 layup through the exasperated helper Finney-Smith; stood around without boxing out Oubre on his putback jam; and threw a high-risk pass that was intercepted and taken the other way for a Tyrese Maxey transition three-pointer.

The remainder of his 26 minutes of action was dotted with more downs than ups. Despite his 6-foot 10 frame, Simmons seemed more interested in tapping out rebounds than fighting for possession. He was credited with a blocked shot, but he generally offered no rim protection.

And then there’s the matter of how Simmons’ shooting and apparent fear of getting fouled constrains Brooklyn’s offense. Oh, he’ll set some good screens and mix in those elite level dimes, but he need not not be guarded because he refuses to go hard to the rack, often stopping in the middle of the paint even with a much smaller defender on him.

I’ve seen NBA players botch layups, but it is rare for an uncontested one to hit hard off the backboard and not even touch the rim, as Simmons did In the second quarter after a terrific hustle play and pass from the corner by Jalen Wilson.

That’s the second time I’ve seen Simmons gag a gimme like that, and the reason could be that he expected to be hit from behind and sent to the foul line, where he has converted a ghastly 44.7% of his attempts over his 69 games as a Net.

Fernandez keeps preaching to Simmons that he wants him to be aggressive and take more shots. From his inactions, Simmons has mostly dismissed that directive. Do you know how hard it is for a player to take nearly every shot from inside the paint and not earn a shooting foul since Game 2 like Simmons has?  You have to really work hard at avoiding contact.

That’s not the area where “working hard” is a plus in the above equation. I understand the caveats when using plus/minus stats in smaller samples as evidence, but there’s a reason why the five most-used Nets lineups that include Simmons, totaling 158 of his 295 minutes this season, have posted a negative net rating, per NBA.com.

Others besides Simmons contributed to Friday’s defeat—Cam Thomas and Dennis Schroder were turnover magnets, each coughing the ball up seven times, helping the Sixers to 28 points off 19 total Nets turnovers. It wasted a second straight 30-plus outing for Johnson, who went 9-for-13 from three-point ranges.

The best I can describe this Simmons situation is to reference a character in the humorous TV series “What We Do In The Shadows” named Colin Robinson. He is an Energy Vampire, sucking the good vibes out of the room. When I watch Simmons play basketball for the Nets these days, I mostly think of Colin Robinson.

It’s time for Fernandez to acknowledge the reality of who Simmons is, a backup on this team whose court time is dependent on his  performance in the moment. If you want to say that Simmons deserved to be in Friday’s game as the Nets went from three points up to nine points down with about 3:30 remaining in the fourth quarter because he had a very good prior game versus Charlotte on Tuesday, well, so did Wilson, who sat out the final eight minutes because he was working on an 0-for-3 from deep as opposed to the 5-for-8 barrage he put up against the Hornets. What has Simmons accomplished here to be treated more favorably?

The Nets have no attachment to Simmons beyond this season as his approximately $40 million contract will expire. From all accounts, the organization has been quite accommodating throughout his travails. I have to believe that if Simmons requests a buyout to play elsewhere should he remain on Brooklyn’s roster past the trade deadline, the Nets would be amenable.

The vitriol here isn’t about the Nets (6-10) losing a game to the team with the NBA’s worst record whose Big 3 were either sidelined (Joel Embiid and Paul George) or on a minutes restriction (Maxey). As a long-suffering Nets fan, I’ve come to grips with the fact that there will be plenty more nights like this.

This is about rooting for Fernandez’s vision to establish a new Nets culture, even through the demoralization that comes from incessant losing. There’s only one way to play, and those that won’t or can’t shouldn’t be on the floor. Acceptance of exceptions is a clear Culture Killer.

So long as Simmons is wearing a Nets jersey, it is his responsibility to prove his net worth every game—and it’s Fernandez’s job to enforce it.