Heading into the home stretch of the 2022 regular season, the eighth-seeded Brooklyn Nets have had enough challenges for two teams. Remember back in training camp, there was what felt like a sidebar story about how not every player was vaccinated, but the team expected to have everyone ready to roll soon. You were probably more invested in seeing updates on player contract extensions and “bigger” stories like that. But yeesh, that sidebar blew up.

And now James Harden is in Philadelphia and Nets fans are waiting for their newest star Ben Simmons to join teammates Andre Drummond and Seth Curry in the lineup. But the Aussie playmaker apparently suffered a back flare up while trying to ramp up his conditioning.

Earlier Monday, Shams Charania of The Athletic joined the Pat McAfee show and dropped the critical update:

“He’s dealing with a flare-up in his back. The Nets are saying that it’s something to be expected and something that we’re just gonna treat day-to-day … but there was an expectation that by now he was gonna be really on the cusp of his comeback and that’s probably not gonna be the case because he had a flare-up with his back, I’m told, during his ramp-up process…. The back is tricky, so Ben Simmons, it could take him a few weeks, it could take him a week, it could take him, you never know with the back. And so I think there is hope and optimism that at some point before the regular season he’s gonna be back on the floor, but in the meantime, he’s gonna have to rehab that back.”

Full context on that Shams bomb here.

Before a home game versus the 7th-placed Toronto Raptors, who sit one full game ahead of the Nets, head coach Steve Nash addressed the suddenly concerning situation.

After giving key updates on Kevin Durant and Joe Harris, Nash talked about his 6-foot-10 point-forward.

“And Ben is still working through a number of things and reconditioning,” Nash said. “And so he's not gonna play this week but we'll keep working on his timeline and hopefully he can progress as well.”

That doesn't sound nearly as concerning as Shams' update that there's merely optimism Simmons could be available before the playoffs, right? Nash isn't talking like a coach whose best defender is out for the remainder of the season at all.

Nash seemed to be anchored toward what he said days ago that it's more of a standard, minor matter. But he did admit Simmons hasn't yet been cleared for any high intensity practices. Nash has said in the past, a player needs to progress through at least three of those before he's eligible to see the floor. Simmons hasn't even started that process.

Until we hear he's started that, without flare up, the showdown everyone wants to see of Simmons returning to Philly seems impossible. But far more importantly, it pushes back his return potentially deep into March, all while the Nets are fighting for their playoff lives here.

So what is Simmons doing when he can't practice?

“He's just doing some light shooting, and just physical therapy, just making sure he gets that back 100 percent, just that little flare up,” Nash added. “And while he does shooting and his kind of reconditioning stuff that he's able to do while that thing settles down.”

The Nets coach furthered that he doesn't think Simmons will practice the rest of this week. He was asked specifically if he might return to the lineup in mid -March. That question was asked because the Nets visit the Sixers on March 10th, so some folks are wondering if Simmons return is simply being delayed following that contest (which would present an insanely hostile arena).

“I haven't done the math, I don't know,” Nash said, playing it coy.

Keep in mind, Monday's opponents, the Raptors are an important challenge for the Nets since if the playoffs were to start today, they would have home court in a Play-In game. And Toronto is one of the few destinations away from Brooklyn where Kyrie Irving is not eligible to play. A potential single-game elimination match up North without Kyrie could be daunting.

Nets fans need to keep their ears open for the first update that Simmons is at least able to begin high-intensity practices. Kevin Durant looks like he'll play either Thursday vsersus Miami or Sunday versus Boston. And that's all because he's been practicing and progressing through those performance protocols. Hopefully Simmons can follow shortly after.