Things are going downhill quickly for the Brooklyn Nets. Although Kyrie Irving exercised his player option, Kevin Durant wants out of Brooklyn. Durant requested a trade from the Nets on Thursday. As if this wasn't bad enough, the news broke minutes after the Nets tweeted this photo of Ben Simmons.
Summer grind ๐ค
(h/t @BenSimmons25) pic.twitter.com/zTMm5csPcm
โ Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) June 30, 2022
The poor timing of the tweet and the news of Durant's trade request garnered seemingly endless tweets from fans trolling the organization. Here are just a few.
why post a retired player ??
โ Sapi Balap (@GodzilaTampan) June 30, 2022
Simmons, Grind? LOL
โ Felipe ๐๐ง๐ท๐จ๐ณ (@strider15) June 30, 2022
https://twitter.com/CelticNation0/status/1542574117500731393?s=20&t=RwQHvoscH7cKmsG_8NXF5g
Article Continues BelowOne tweet mentions the โdowngradeโ that the Nets underwent in February when they traded James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Simmons.
Harden to Ben Simmons ๐ญ what a downgrade ๐คฃ๐คฃ
โ ๐๐๐๐ง๐ฎ ๐๐ค๐ช๐ง๐จ ๐ (@luvisharden) June 30, 2022
While it's all opinionated and subjective, things are certainly trending in this direction. Harden wasn't the superstar, triple-double machine that he was in his prime for Philadelphia this year. However, he showed up, and now he's making sacrifices for his team, declining his max contract player option to make room for free agents like PJ Tucker.
Meanwhile, the Nets haven't gotten much from Simmons yet. Besides practice, Simmons hasn't stepped foot on the court for Brooklyn. In fact, he hasn't played since the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Sixers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in June of 2021.
Hopefully for the Nets, this โsummer grindโ that Simmons is talking about is authentic, and he'll be able to put on a superstar performance in the upcoming season. Because, at this point, the team is running out of players.