Despite the Nets’ roster being filled with new faces and a completely different style of play, one thing didn’t change much in Saturday’s loss to the 76ers: Ben Simmons still looks lost.
But even after Simmons’ latest unimpressive performance, when he played the fewest minutes in a game he had since November, his former coach said he believed Simmons could again be a productive player in the league.
Watch an average of 9 LIVE NBA Regular Season games per week on ESPN on Kayo Sports on ESPN on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Doc Rivers — who coached Simmons in Philadelphia and said he didn’t know if a team could win a title with Simmons at point guard — said after Saturday night’s game that the fact that Simmons figures to have the ball more often in the wake of the trades of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant could do him good.
“I believe he can get back to where he was with us,’’ Rivers said. “Especially now I think because he’ll have the ball in his hands more. … It’s just going to take time now. It’s been a year and a half. I don’t think it will be overnight, but he’s working and that’s all you can do.”
The early results weren’t promising.
Simmons started the game on the bench against the 76ers and when he entered midway through the fourth quarter, he was booed loudly by the Brooklyn crowd.
And his play in the team’s first game with its new acquisitions, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, didn’t help, as Simmons was limited to four points, three rebounds and three assists.
On the season, the 26-year-old is averaging career-lows in every major category, including points, rebounds, assists and steals.
Prior to Saturday’s game, in discussing how he might utilize his roster in the wake of the departures of Irving and Durant, head coach Jacque Vaughn said Simmons could occasionally be used as a point-center.
NBA world reacts to KD Suns move | 02:01
Certainly, there will be more opportunities for everyone on the roster to score with their two superstars gone.
Simmons is now the last piece of what the Nets had hoped would become a championship team led by a Big 3, with Durant in Phoenix, Irving in Dallas and James Harden now in Philadelphia.Harden, too, heard it from the Barclays Center crowd on Saturday and afterwards there was “a lot of dysfunction” within the organization when he played for the Nets.
The NBA’s Last Two Minute Report from Saturday night’s loss confirmed that Spencer Dinwiddie’s 3-pointer at the end of the fourth quarter that would have tied the game and sent it to overtime was late.
The report also noted that a block should have been called on Harden on Dinwiddie’s drive to the basket with 12.2 seconds left and the Nets up by one point. The call would have sent Dinwiddie to the line. Instead, it was ruled a Nets turnover, Philadelphia got the ball and scored the final four points of the game.
