What injury does Ben Simmons have? How long will he be out?
The Nets’ player just can’t seem to catch a break, having sat out more games than he’s played. Now, things are worse.
With reports now confirming the worst fears, the Australian’s situation begs the question of what does his future hold and whether the Nets will continue to stick with a player who has spent more time off the court than he has on it.
What’s Ben Simmons’ current injury situation?
If reports are to be believed, it’s highly likely that Ben Simmons won’t be playing again this season. Following an announcement from the Brooklyn Nets on Friday evening, it’s now understood that the guard has been diagnosed with a nerve impingement in his back, which means he will be staying on the sidelines for the foreseeable future. To be clear, Simmons has not played a game in the NBA since February 15th, due to both back and knee soreness. To that end, the 26-year-old has had sporadic involvement for the team, as he has been absent on numerous occasions due to his condition. The most recent layoff, however, was his lengthiest period out, with 15 straight games spent watching from the outside. Indeed, Jacque Vaughn - the Nets head coach - spoke on the situation ahead of Saturday’s game against the Miami Heat and his prognosis wasn’t positive as he explained that Simmons is “probably not going to join us for the rest of the year, in all honesty.”
What exactly is Ben Simmons suffering from?
To be perfectly honest, the Australian point guard has got a number of issues to contend with at the moment. Even before this most recent diagnosis where his back is concerned, Simmons was already struggling to recover from a knee problem, after having fluid drained from his knee while also receiving a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injection prior to the All-Star break. Sadly, the treatment didn’t yield any success where his knee was concerned and to make matters worse, he began to experience back soreness during his recovery process. As a result, he received an MRI back on March 6th, which subsequently revealed inflammation. This in turn has led to the above-mentioned official diagnosis of nerve impingement.
What lies ahead for Ben Simmons and the Brooklyn Nets?
Though this is by no means an ideal situation for either party, the unfortunate truth is that it’s been this way for a while. Since his arrival via a trade from the Philadelphia 76ers, Simmons’ hasn’t really had the opportunity to prove himself and to that end, the Nets have essentially gone about life without him. In that time the franchise fired former head coach Steve Nash and shortly after, witnessed the departure of both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving which of course thrust the team into rebuild mode. When he has managed to get minutes - he was demoted to the bench - he’s averaged a career low in every category that counts with 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists.
At this point, the Nets have in no way indicated that they intend to part company with Simmons, but one has to feel that given the return on their investment and his current albeit unfortunate situation, it’s got to be a consideration. For their part, the Nets are still in contention for the play-in round with a 39-34 record. Sitting at seventh in the Eastern Conference and just half a game behind the No. 6 seed, Miami Heat, Brooklyn can still make a late push with nine games remaining. Watch this space.