Simmons’ Saga Adds To Legacy Of Disastrous Nets Pivots
When it comes to Nets lore, their Original Sins haven’t necessarily been their bold actions. It’s been the pivots.
Buying Julius Erving’s rights from the infamous Virginia Squires spurred the New York Nets to two ABA Championships in his three seasons during the 1970s, the most rewarding payoff of all the splashes in Nets franchise history. Selling his contract to Philadelphia to help pay their entry ticket (including the territorial fee owed to the Knicks) into the NBA after their last title in 1976, however, set the team back five years.
Trading for Jason Kidd at the dawn of the new decade immediately elevated the Nets into the NBA’s elite, even if they never captured a crown. After dealing Kidd to Dallas seven seasons later, the team returned to irrelevancy for their remaining years in New Jersey.
Next up is the oft-ridiculed summer of 2013. From my recollection, very few Nets fans had negative views on the blockbuster trade that brought Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the team’s sparkling new arena in Brooklyn. Sure, it was risky given the stars’ advanced ages and the boatload of draft picks sent to Boston, but as long as the Nets could replenish their roster with quality going forward, the opportunity cost to the Celtics would have been a bunch of guys like 2014 first-rounder James Young.
Of course, despised former General Manager Billy King pivoted after one season that returned one playoff series victory. He decided the Nets needed to get younger and more athletic, which is kind of hard to do without draft picks. Pierce was allowed to walk for nothing as a free agent and the rest of the team was dismantled. Welcome to another half decade in hell while Boston was gifted a jumpstart back into contention with lottery picks Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Fast forward to 13 months ago. The Nets, having struck NBA gold when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving decided to join forces in Brooklyn in the summer of 2019 before pulling off a trade to add another First Team All-NBA honoree in James Harden to the mix the following year, should have been locked and loaded for a deep playoff run when all hands got healthy and the New York City COVID-19 vaccine mandate got lifted to reinstate Irving’s eligibility to play home games. After all, it was only the combination of unfortunate circumstances of injuries to Harden and Irving plus Durant’s slightly too-large shoe size that prevented Brooklyn from ousting eventual champion Milwaukee in the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Ah, but that darned pivot. Harden was unhappy with his environment and requested a trade, preferably to Philadelphia. Nets General Manager Sean Marks had options. He could: A) Hold onto Harden and hope things turned around in time for the national exposure that is the NBA playoffs, where Harden wouldn’t want to be embarrassed, even if it meant losing the player in the offseason when he opted out of his contract to become a free agent; B) Shop Harden around the league to hold out for the best offer, or; C) Acquiesce to Harden’s wish and deal him to bitter rival Philadelphia for whatever they were willing to give, including a physically and mentally broken down Ben Simmons, who was in Year 2 of a five-year max contract.
Marks chose C), and here the Nets are again, relegated to also-ran status after KD and Kyrie also demanded to be set free in advance of February’s trade deadline. Simmons, meanwhile, was finally ruled out for the season on Tuesday by Nets Head Coach Jacque Vaughn so he could rehab a back injury that wasn’t fixed by offseason surgery and limited him to 42 games. SNY’s Ian Begley spoke with Simmons’ agent, who gave assurances that Simmons will be good to go for the start of the 2023 training camp.
Sure he will.
When Simmons did suit up for those 42 contests, he was a shell of his former All-Star self. He averaged 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 1.3 steals per game while converting 56.6% of his field goal attempts (all but 13 taken from inside the paint, per NBA.com) and 43.9 of his free throws. His legendary defensive prowess was diminished by both his injury and the Nets’ decision to play him a ton at center instead of a position where he could guard out on the perimeter.
Blame the injuries to his back and knee, the newness, the constant chaos of his surroundings, etc. Simmons’ flaws were exposed in Brooklyn. He seemed like he played scared of getting sent to the line, which will be his enduring legacy from his four seasons (not counting last season when he sat out with mental issues) in Philadelphia, overshadowing three consecutive All-Star appearances and two NBA All-Defensive First Team berths. Even the “Aggressive Ben” in Brooklyn stopped short of contact, resulting in a slew of fallaway hook shots.
Only those wearing rose-colored glasses couldn’t see this coming. It’s why I was adamant that the Nets do anything—like offloading him to a third team, etc.—ANYTHING but bring back Simmons when negotiating the Harden deal. (Why I Hope The Nets Pass On Simmons For Harden (substack.com))
Imagine if Marks hadn’t pivoted and instead forced Harden to play out his contract last season. I don’t know how far the Nets would have advanced in the playoffs, but I don’t believe they would have been ignominiously swept by Boston in the first round. Then Philly would have had to gut their roster to clear the salary cap space necessary to sign him as a free agent that summer, including finding some other sucker to take on a player on sabbatical like Simmons.
As for Brooklyn, let’s even assume that Durant and Irving still wanted out this season and brought back similar returns in trades, including wing Mikal Bridges from Phoenix. The Royce O’Neale acquisition from Utah couldn’t have occurred without the trade exception and the first-round pick obtained in the Harden deal, but everything else would have lined up in Brooklyn’s favor. The Nets would have actually entered the coming offseason UNDER the salary cap for the first time in four years, according to Spotrac.com. That includes cap holds for pending free agents Cam Johnson and Yuta Watanabe, but not Seth Curry’s.
Having Simmons’ contract still on the books changes everything. It will test the NBA adage that any contract is tradeable, especially one this toxic with two years remaining on it. A sober GM shouldn’t touch it without two first-round picks given as a chaser.
As Nets history has shown us, it’s not so easy to recover from dumb pivots.