‘I’m not a doctor, bro’: The ‘honest conversation’ and big lesson driving Simmons’ NBA return

To hear Ben Simmons inform it, there isn’t a lot concern over his standing.

“I feel great,” Simmons mentioned following apply.

Simple and straightforward. As if.

Heading into the upcoming sport in Toronto, Simmons has been inactive for 5 of the Nets’ previous seven video games, together with 4 in a row from November 30 to December 7 when he was coping with knee soreness and a calf pressure.

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The Nets have been at all times going to deliver Simmons alongside slowly this season, sitting him on the second finish of back-to-backs, on account of the time he spent sitting out final season — first when he was holding out in Philadelphia then with a again harm upon being traded to Brooklyn.

At least publicly, the Nets haven’t put a tough cap on Simmons’ minutes, however they’re paying shut consideration to how a lot he performs, attempting to therapeutic massage him into being wholesome when the video games rely essentially the most.

“I think we’ve continued to build their minutes up but not to the point where it’s too many,” coach Jacque Vaughn mentioned — referring to each Simmons and T.J. Warren, who not too long ago returned from an harm of his personal. “And so we want both those guys to be healthy at the end of the year.

“So we got to be smart about how we use those guys going forward, whether that’s back-to-backs how we use those minutes, whether that is how many minutes they play in a single game. I think we have enough depth to use their minutes judiciously and to be able to play at a pace that we want to and still play hard.”

Simmons, naturally, desires to play as a lot as doable. That creates a little bit of push and pull, although the participant acknowledges he’s a biased social gathering, and maybe not the perfect particular person to make the ultimate name.

“I’m not a doctor, bro,” Simmons mentioned. “I don’t make that decision. I can only tell them how I feel, but at the same time, I’m gonna trust their decision and what they think is best for me.”

“You have this honest conversation of what’s too much,” Vaughn mentioned. “I think at the beginning, we wanted to continue to push Ben to play as many games as possible and for him to grow up with the group on the floor. I think we learned maybe we pushed a little bit too much, and for a guy that hadn’t played in a long time. And so I think sometimes you kind of learn by going through the situation and [get] smarter on the other side, hopefully.”

Partially on account of having performed simply 19 video games this season, Simmons continues to be feeling his method into the place he matches with the Nets. The expertise that made him a no brainer No. 1-overall decide continues to be there, however a lot of the narrative round Simmons has centred on his shortcomings, and for apparent causes. Vaughn desires to discover a solution to make it work.

“He’s just so unique,” Vaughn mentioned.

“Who you’re going to have out there on the floor with him, what the spacing is going to look like, what he’s going to look like with the basketball in his hands, where he’s going to be without the basketball in his hands. So we’re always trying to put him in a position to succeed. And we’re still messing around with that, where he’s at.”

They is likely to be messing round a bit longer, however Vaughn did mission some optimism that his workload may not be so restricted down the road — possibly even when the Nets subsequent play a back-to-back January 19.

“I think we want all of our guys playing in all the games,” Vaughn mentioned. “So yes, we want to work towards all of our guys being in a position to play back-to-backs.”

This article first appeared on The New York Postand was reproduced with permission.