Ben Simmons entered the 2023-24 season with a clean bill of health for the first time in over two years. However, two weeks into the season, the three-time All-Star is set to miss his third game. After suffering a hip injury during the Brooklyn Nets' loss to the Milwaukee Bucks Monday, the team ruled Simmons out for the second straight game Friday at Boston.

“We're just not in the place where all parties around feel comfortable with him playing at the levels that he's been playing at,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said. “We’ll continue to be day-to-day with this thing. He’ll get some treatment today, tomorrow also, and we’ll see what that looks like going forward.”

Nets: Ben Simmons' injury history

Nets' Ben Simmons looking serious

The Nets are all too familiar with Simmons' injury history. After acquiring him for James Harden at the 2022 deadline, Brooklyn watched its season go down in flames with the three-time All-Star on the bench due to a back injury and mental health issues.

Simmons underwent back surgery to repair a bulging disc the following summer. However, he played just 42 games last season, missing three extended periods in the first half of the year before being sidelined indefinitely at the All-Star break. He was later shut down due to a nerve impingement in his surgically repaired back.

Vaughn indicated that Simmons' hip injury is unrelated to his prior back issues, again insisting it stemmed from an awkward landing while attempting a floater against Milwaukee:

“I went to business school at the University of Kansas. I definitely did not go to medical school,” he said. “I will tell you that the hip was the one play that we talked about in the game. That was the aggravation. Before that play, Ben was good.”

Simmons' 2023-24 performance 

After his injury-riddled 2022-23 campaign, Simmons has had a productive start to this season. He ranks 11th in the NBA in rebounds at 10.8 per game and 14th in assists at 6.7 per game. His transition ball-handling and passing have been a focal point of a Nets offense that ranks second in the league in fastbreak points (19.8 per game).

However, his passivity as a scorer remains a concern. The former number-one pick is averaging 6.8 field goal attempts per 36 minutes, a downturn from last season, and has been to the free-throw line twice in six games.
Entering the season, Simmons and Brooklyn raved about the Aussie's improved physical state after an intense, eight-month rehabilitation program. Vaughn said the second-year Net has earned the trust of Brooklyn's locker room, inspiring confidence that he can make it back to one hundred percent.
“He aggravated his hip in the game the other night. For me, it's just that simple,” the coach said. “Other players have missed games from aggravation from ankles, shins, hamstrings. It's all in the same bucket. And so, that's been the best thing, is Ben has earned the right just like the other players to get hurt, come back, be a player, try to get back on the floor, have the confidence to be a teammate, all those things.”

“I don't put him differently than any other player. And so the history behind it is the history of previous time and years, and I think that's why our relationship has grown to where it is. I trust in what he says to me, the work that I've seen him do, and he'll continue to do the work to get back on the floor and help us as a ball club.”