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Brooklyn Nets players and coaches emphasized throughout the preseason that Ben Simmons' re-acclimation to NBA play would be a process. That has been the case to open the season with Simmons fouling out of two of three games and scoring 17 total points.
Simmons showed a more aggressive mindset in the first half of Brooklyn's 134-124 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies Monday. However, the point guard disappeared down the stretch before fouling out midway through the fourth quarter. When asked about the officiating postgame, Simmons did not hold back.
“I mean, some of it tonight was a little bit of just bulls–t calls,” Simmons said. “But refs make mistakes, too.”
While the officiating proved controversial Monday, fouling has been a recurring issue for Simmons thus far with Brooklyn. The 26-year-old has now fouled out in three of his last four games. Simmons committed six fouls in just 13 minutes in Brooklyn's final preseason game against Minnesota. He reached 23 minutes in the season opener against New Orleans before fouling out. With that, we go to the film to see if his assessment of the referees Monday was correct.
Breaking down each of Ben Simmons' fouls vs. Grizzlies
Ben Simmons' first two fouls came on a pair of off-ball screens. The first-year Net has frequently been used as a screener but has yet to perfect the technique. On both fouls, Simmons moves and sticks his elbow out as Harris and Durant work off the screens, making them easy calls for the official:
https://streamable.com/262ihu
Simmons needs to hold his position on screens to avoid picking up offensive fouls. His teammates also need to take a path that allows them to curl tight off his shoulder to prevent defenders from easily working over the top. This should improve as Brooklyn gets more reps running their offensive sets.
The Aussie's third foul came while battling for rebounding position with Steven Adams. While Adams initiates the contact with a shove, Simmons is grabbing the center's jersey and pulls it on his way down. This happens directly in the referee's line of sight and is likely what drew the foul call. This call could have gone either way, but Adams dominated Brooklyn on the boards all night, grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds. The Nets have struggled with physically imposing frontcourts early in the season. Pelicans center Jonas Valanciunas also tallied a game-high 13 boards, six of which were offensive, on his way to 15 points in the season opener.
Issues surrounding Simmons' fit alongside Nets centers Nic Claxton and Day'Ron Sharpe have been evident through three games. Brooklyn's best route to address this offensively is to play Simmons at the 5, something they have done sparingly. However, the 6-foot-11 point forward will struggle to rebound against bigger centers as he did here.
Simmons' fourth foul was his worst of the night. He was guarding the red-hot Desmond Bane when Memphis sent Brandon Clarke to set a pindown for the guard. Simmons grabs Clarke's hip and pulls it on the screen in what looked like an attempt to slingshot himself toward the curling Bane. He does so directly in front of the referee, making it one of the more obvious calls all night:
https://streamable.com/dn5f2n
These are the low-IQ plays that have been detrimental to Ben Simmons and the Nets early in the season. To make matters worse, Memphis was in the bonus and knocked down a pair of free throws off the foul, killing Brooklyn's momentum as they attempted to mount a comeback.
The next foul came when Kyrie Irving forces Bane baseline towards Simmons, who slides over and bumps the guard, forcing him out of bounds. The contact is minimal and this is another call that could have gone either way, but all Simmons needed to do in this scenario was step on the baseline to take away Bane's path. By bumping the guard out of bounds, he puts the referee in the position to make a quick decision on what would be his fifth foul:
https://streamable.com/i9pm4p
This represents another avoidable situation where Simmons is putting himself at a disadvantage.
The final foul came with 3:52 remaining in the game. Simmons inexplicably let Ja Morant roll the ball for 20-plus seconds with the clock running and Brooklyn trailing by six. He eventually challenges Morant and picks up his sixth foul near half court. This was likely the foul Simmons had in mind when he made his postgame comments. Nets head coach Steve Nash was livid following the call and had reason to be. The contact on the play is extremely light to be called for a sixth foul in the final minutes of a close game:
https://streamable.com/nfp94u
Morant spoke about the call postgame, saying he baited Simmons into the foul by drawing back to a similar play during his rookie season.
“If y’all want to dig up a play my rookie year, we was in Philly and the same situation happened like that where Ben in the first half, when I went to look at Coach to get the play and he ran through the ball, got the steal and went to dunk,” Morant said. “Once I seen him, I was rolling the ball and I was at half (court), I looked at Coach and I see (Simmons) try to look like, ‘Oh yeah,' so I knew had him. He was going to press up and I was going to force the ref to make the call.”
https://twitter.com/bcabraham/status/1584746179236986880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1584746179236986880%7Ctwgr%5E1cb4927e87b407d008005ff5a63147b8fc1d6698%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbssports.com%2Fnba%2Fnews%2Fgrizzlies-ja-morant-explains-how-he-baited-ben-simmons-into-fouling-out-for-second-time-in-three-games%2F
“Forcing the ref to make the call” was a common theme with Ben Simmons Monday night. While three of his fouls were questionable, Simmons continually put the referees in positions to make calls that were avoidable. For a player who is the third-highest paid on the Nets and their top perimeter defender, those decisions will prove detrimental to his team's success down the stretch of games. Irving spoke about Simmons' decision-making on fouls following Brooklyn's loss to New Orleans.
“We told him in the locker room: he is a valuable piece for us and we need him out there, and fouling out is not an option,” Irving said. “Playing aggressive is something that we want him to do, but we also want to play smart, and we can hold each other accountable like that in the locker room, which I'm glad for.”
Ben Simmons and the Nets will certainly need to hold each other accountable after allowing Morant and Bane to combine for 76 points Monday. Brooklyn will travel to Milwaukee Wednesday for a matchup with the Bucks as Simmons looks to bounce back in his fourth regular season game after a 16-month layoff.
