Simmons Has Enough Problems To Overcome, So Maybe The Nets Should Hold Off On Plans To Play Him Out Of Position
Timing of KD/Irving News Adds Fuel To Speculation
Although NBA training camps are only a little more than a month away, any analyst’s projection as to what the Nets roster will look like this season, how they’ll line up, and/or how they’ll guard, has to be made with a slew of disclaimers, most importantly:
*--whether Kevin Durant is traded or not
**--whether KD suits up or not if he isn’t traded
***--whether Kyrie Irving is traded or not
****--whether Ben Simmons is sound of body and mind
No matter what happens between now and Opening Night (I believe full schedules will be released on Thursday) with regard to the ultimate decisions on Brooklyn’s two disgruntled All-Stars, however, I would like to nip a growing sentiment in the bud: Simmons is not a 5.
To clarify, I’m more concerned about the defensive end, where Simmons—again, should he suffer no declines following microdiscectomy surgery on his back and has overcome his mental health issues—brings his most value. The Nets accepted Simmons, despite his sitting out all last season, as the featured return from Philadelphia in February’s James Harden blockbuster ostensibly for his defensive prowess thanks to his length (6-foot 10) and athleticism. Ergo, they should be game-planning to have Simmons guard the opponent’s best one-on-one scorer. When the Nets next face the Celtics, Simmons should be matched up with Jayson Tatum, not Robert Williams III.
The phrase “positionless basketball” is all the rage, but matchups have to be a factor if you’re trying to get through a marathon regular season and then four playoff series. Placing Simmons on opposing bigs is an absolute waste. His ability to work through screens is, or at least used to be, superb. Nets fans can recall how Simmons frustrated D’Angelo Russell in Philly’s five-game victory over Brooklyn in the 2019 Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Per NBA.com, Russell shot 11-for-36 (30.5%) with Simmons as the closest defender in that series and the Nets averaged just .74 points per possession on the 70 possessions with DLo as the pick-and-roll ballhandler. Among the 100 players who were involved defensively in guarding at least 100 pick-and-roll ballhandler situations in 2020-21, Simmons’ last season, he ranked sixth with .73 points allowed per possession.
As Nets fans also know, having a player who doesn’t always require a big to switch out on screens would be enormously impactful. Brooklyn has been almost exclusively a switch-everything defensive team in Head Coach Steve Nash’s two seasons, which often led to chaos, since the switching big man typically had little chance of stopping the opponent’s best ballhandler while the smaller Nets defender simultaneously had to scramble underneath against an opposing big man. The Nets usually played small in general, so you’d often see the defensive rebounding left to undersized guys like Irving, Seth Curry and Bruce Brown after all the switching. Championships aren’t won with such meek D.
On the other end, there can be times where Simmons can play the old Brown role of the roll man to hide his bricklaying from the perimeter. He isn’t a bad screener, averaging 1.6 screen assists per game two seasons ago while the recipient of 13 alley oops, per NBA.com. Again, though, it isn’t his best feature. Simmons is at his most effective when he’s pushing the pace with the ball in his hands and then drawing defenses into the paint so he can find open three-point shooters—he’s reportedly among the league leaders in that department.
Simmons’ poor shooting, including his brutal numbers from the foul line--creates conundrums for any team he’s on. It puts pressure on General Manager Sean Marks to find a floor spacing big man so that the paint isn’t as clogged as last season, when Nash too often had to resort to utilizing lineups with multiple non-shooters. But, no matter what happens with Brooklyn’s stars, let’s not turn Simmons into something he’s not-- your typical rim-running lobs-and-blocks guy.
______________________________________________________________________
I haven’t seen this anywhere, so I’m just asking Nets fans: Coincidence, or not?
June 27: Irving exercises his player option to finish out his four-year contract in Brooklyn
June 30: Durant reportedly asks to be traded
July 25: Irving says wants to play for the Nets as opposed to being traded, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
August 8: Per Charania, KD meets with Nets owner Joseph Tsai in London and not only reaffirms his trade request, he gives Tsai an ultimatum: Marks and Nash go, or he goes.
All last week, Durant was seen working out and partying around Europe with his former Thunder and Nets teammate Harden. While it’s possible I’ve missed it, I haven’t heard about any offseason interactions between KD and Irving.
I’m not privy to where the relationship between the Nets’ two stars stands at the moment, so this could all mean nothing. Most recent reports suggest there’s still a strong base of respect. Still, even if KD will never say it publicly, you have to wonder if his wandering eye is as much related to wanting to get away from the mercurial Irving as much as Marks and Nash, of whom he apparently had no problem throwing under the bus in a leak logically credited to his side.
Remember, it was Irving’s ‘personal leave” absence in January 2021 that spurred Marks into action and empty the asset cupboard to acquire Harden in a trade with Houston in the first place. Then last season, Irving’s refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine in violation of New York City’s mandate limited him to 29 games. If it were me, I’d be disenchanted from having to log 40-plus minutes on many nights and risk injury like KD has done because of a teammate’s unreliability.
If nothing else, the proximity of the events above add fuel to the speculation, if it indeed turns out to be a false correlation.