Who do ben simmons play for

Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash has confirmed Ben Simmons will be with the team on the bench for Thursday's return game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Simmons is expected to receive a frosty reception from the 76ers fans at the Wells Fargo Center as he returns for the first time since last month's trade to the Nets.

The point guard had a major fallout with the 76ers after a nightmare playoffs period, leading to him requesting a trade and opting not to play all season until a trade was finalised in February.

Nash said Simmons, who is yet to debut for Brooklyn, will not play for the Nets on Thursday but will be in attendance with the team which he felt he needed to get out of the way.

Nash: Simmons needs "to get the whole Philly thing out of the way"

"It's great," Nash told reporters prior to Tuesday's game against the Charlotte Hornets.

"He's on our team, he needs to be with his teammates and get the whole Philly thing out of the way a little bit. Maybe it never goes away, but the first time it's always nice to kind of deal with it and move on."

He added: "I don't think he's naive to think he's not going to get some boos. I hope he enjoys it. It's a part of the game I miss."

Simmons has not played since his trade due to a back complaint which has hampered his ability to get reconditioned to game standard having not played all season.

Nash was not clear-cut on Simmons' likely debut, with the Australian still not cleared to practice.

"It's to be determined," Nash said. "I think he's progressing this week, but I don't know what that means as far as Saturday.

"He'll see us [Wednesday] in Philly. I don't think he's ready for 5-on-5 basketball but he's improving, working out, and he'll join us in Philly, and a few good days of rehab."

Brooklyn Nets point guard Ben Simmons has probably broken a record this season that will be hard to break, and it's no joke, he hasn't played a single game for his former team the Philadelphia 76ers and is probably the player who has generated the most headlines in NBA history without playing a single minute.

As the last week of the regular season begins, the note with Simmons, while not surprising, is an ideal culmination for his situation and this Monday Nets coach Steve Nash announced that the Australian is ruled out not only for the rest of the regular season, but also will not see action in the play-in, where Brooklyn has already secured his participation.

Nets are 10th in the Eastern Conference

The Nets, disappointingly, are in tenth place in the Eastern Conference standings, with a record of 40-38, just the same record as the Charlotte Hornets, who, however, beat them in the tiebreaker criteria.

Under the play-in rules, the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth teams enter the playoffs, where the winner of the two teams with the best record qualifies as seventh to the postseason and the loser receives the winner of the two teams with the worst record.

This means that, if the campaign ended today, the Nets would visit the Hornets and if they win they would have to visit the loser between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks with the hope of winning both games on the road without Simmons and miraculously get into the eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

A nightmare season

Simmons was traded before the trade deadline to the Nets from the 76ers in a deal that included the arrival of James Harden in Philadelphia.

The good news for Brooklyn is that in the four remaining regular season games they will not have to take a plane, as on Tuesday they host the Houston Rockets, on Wednesday they visit the New York Knicks in the same city, on Friday they will be at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers and on Sunday also at the Barclays Center against the Indiana Pacers.

The Brooklyn Nets are going to be one of the more interesting teams as they head into the 2022-23 season as there are so many questions that need to be answered. The biggest one revolves around Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but the other All-Star on the roster will be looked at very closely as well.

Ben Simmons, who hasn’t played an NBA game since June 20 of 2021, was acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers at the deadline deal that sent James Harden to the Sixers. The Nets were hoping he would form a new Big 3 with Durant and Irving in Brooklyn so the Nets could move forward.

Instead, Simmons didn’t suit up for the Nets in the 2021-22 season due to a back injury and the hope now is that he will be ready to go when the season opens up. He told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith that he’s ready to go, but that remains to be seen.

ESPN’s Nick Friedell was asked what his biggest question of the NBA season was and he kept the focus on Simmons:

I want to see what happens with Ben Simmons because we saw what kind of player he can be when he’s at his best, when he feels good here and he feels good physically, but can that player reappear with the Nets? Whether or not Kevin Durant is gonna be there or not? Whatever happens with Simmons will go a long way towards whatever type of team that Nets are going to be this season.

The last time Simmons played a full season, he averaged 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists, and 1.6 steals on his way to his third All-Star appearance and a spot on the All-Defensive First Team. If the Nets can get that type of production from him, it would be a huge boost for Brooklyn as they move forward.

site: media | arena: nba | pageType: profiles | section: | slug: | sport: basketball | route: player_profile_home | 6-keys: media/spln/nba/reg/free/playerprofiles