It became obvious well before the final buzzer on opening night of the Brooklyn Nets’ season that Ben Simmons’ struggles won’t have a quick fix, despite the superstar talent surrounding him.
Prior to the Nets’ 130-108 blowout loss on their home court to an energetic young New Orleans Pelicans team, Simmons’ last meaningful minutes on an NBA floor were in June last year when his Philadelphia 76ers lost game seven of the eastern conference semi-finals to the Atlanta Hawks.
Simmons hardly starred on Thursday (AEDT). He fouled out early in the fourth quarter with four points, five rebounds and five assists, after taking just three shots.
Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans had their way with Ben Simmons and the Brooklyn Nets.Credit:Getty Images
Simmons is one of the NBA’s most versatile defenders and creative playmakers, but he was helpless on the defensive end and looked lost on offence as the likes of Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, and CJ McCollum had their way with a hapless Nets line-up.
Simmons had the misfortune of having to cover Williamson for much of the brief time he was in the game. Williamson returned from his own one-year absence through injury with 25 points and nine rebounds, powering the Pelicans to their commanding win.
The No.1 pick in the 2019 draft looked fully recovered and explosive after being sidelined with a broken right foot.
Since his blockbuster trade to the Nets, Australian phenom Simmons has done and said all the right things on his long road back from both physical and mental issues.
His workload was ramped up through the pre-season to the point where he was ready to play significant minutes on opening night with the basketball world watching.
The Nets were already a team that captured the imagination through the fascinating plot lines surrounding superstar pairing Kevin Durant and the Melbourne-born Kyrie Irving. Just how could coach Steve Nash get the group singing from the same hymn book after an off-season in which Durant reportedly made an ultimatum – to be traded, or have Nash and New Zealand-born GM Sean Marks fired?
Australian Boomers icon Patty Mills, an integral part of the Nets’ rotation, has a reputation as one of the best chemistry-building players anywhere in the NBA. But even he couldn’t fix the problems that beset the Nets last season, and that continue to be an issue after just the first game of a whole new 82-game campaign.
Simmons and fellow Melbourne-born guard Kyrie Irving try to shut down Pelicans sharpshooter CJ McCollum.Credit:AP
It defies logic that Nash, a two-time NBA MVP from his time as the floor general point guard of the Phoenix Suns, would struggle so badly to implement a pass-first offence that suits two of the game’s most gifted scorers in Durant and Irving, but that was one of the most glaring issues stemming from the Brooklyn Nets loss to the Pelicans on opening night.
Nash and Marks drew the ire of Brooklyn fans over the off-season as the franchise picked up the pieces from a catastrophic showing in last season’s play-offs. On Thursday, it was plain to see why – the roster’s biggest deficiencies from last season hadn’t been addressed.
The Nets’ lack of size and strength down low means they’re constantly bullied by opposition bigs in the paint, particularly when it comes to not securing rebounds and giving up second-chance points, but perhaps even more troubling is how the ball seemed to stick in the hands of Irving and Durant in a stagnating offence. Then, in transition, they’re constantly beaten down the floor, leading to uncontested opposition dunks or lay-ups. The signs were there in key stages last year – particularly in the Nets’ horrific showing against their division rivals the Boston Celtics in the play-offs – and they’re still there this year, despite the addition of one of the league’s best defenders and passers in Simmons. Now the Nets will be frantically trying to find a way of integrating Simmons – a reluctant shooter to put it mildly – into an offence that needs to gel rapidly.
Durant scored 32 points but was largely a one-man show, with no other Nets player in double figures until the final two minutes of the third quarter. Mills had 16 points and Irving managed just 15 on six-for-19 shooting, going 0 for 6 from three-point range.
with AP
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