In no multiverse, Ben Simmons would have imagined that he will be the biggest name on a team that would start its season with the likes of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on its roster. Now that the duo which teamed up in 2019 to win some championships, has moved on without winning any, the former Sixers guard has the Brooklyn team all to himself.
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But if only, he were half as good as what the Nets received for KD from the Suns – Mikal Bridges. At this point, Cam Johnson will probably get more minutes than the 6ft 10′ point guard, even then the 3x All-Star thought it was a good idea to slander his former teammates.
Ben Simmons is psyched to play with new teammates after the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving trade
Easier said than done. After leaving a perfect situation in Philly where he could just have forgotten his bad post-season performances and started anew despite what Joel Embiid and Doc Rivers said in the heat of the moment, the 26-year-old is now thinking about it when he has no other All-Star to play with.
Ben Simmons is psyched to begin anew with his new teammates post KD/Kyrie trade: “We got a great group of guys, guys who just want to play basketball…..I’m kind of tired of just, you know, any focus being away from basketball.”https://t.co/SWgb9veW2J via @Newsday
— Barbara Barker (@meanbarb) February 10, 2023
Sure, he can talk about “away from basketball,” when he has been a Kyrie teammate be it for a year. But the fans in Philly have not forgotten his behavior before he joined the Nets and even a few months after he joined the new franchise.
This season he is averaging 7.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 6.2 assists playing 26 minutes a game in 39 outings. How psyched would Nets fans be if this man leads this team? Not much I fear.
What have the Nets got in Simmons and the new guys?
We sometimes forget that we are not just talking about a 3-time All-Star when we are discussing Simmons. This man was also the Rookie of the Year in 2018 over Jayson Tatum, a 2x NBA All-Defensive First Team member quite earlier than 99.9% of young players in the league, ever.
And he is showing signs of getting back to his usual self for the first time in two years.
You tell me the last time you saw Ben Simmons directing traffic like this. Dinwiddie/Thomas stagger for Harris, Simmons flows right into a DHO when he comes off. Kick to Dinwiddie who drives the closeout, Simmons points for and gets the lob. pic.twitter.com/PaN46iiNeA
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) February 10, 2023
Will he be able to take it further? Or just give up like he has been doing in the past couple of seasons? We well get to see it in the next few days.
