The start to Ben Simmons' tenure with the Brooklyn Nets hasn't been great but Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers sees brighter days ahead for the Fresh Prince.
“I believe he can get back to where he was with us,” Rivers says of Simmons (h/t Brian Lewis of the New York Post). “Especially now I think because he'll have the ball in his hands more…It's just going to take time.”
Simmons missed the entire 2021-22 season with a holdout to force a trade from the Sixers, as well as a back injury that prevented him from making his post-trade debut with the Nets. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Simmons has missed 16 games due to injury and has been relegated to the bench for his lack of reliability.
To make matters worse, Simmons is averaging career-lows across the board when he should be a walking triple-double.
Nonetheless, with a roster that has no championship expectations, perhaps Big Ben can breathe more freely now.
Furthermore, the Nets opted to replace future Hall of Fame players in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving with lesser offensive players in Mikal Bridges and Spencer Dinwiddie. While Bridges and Dinwiddie are high-quality starters, neither of them needs the ball in their hands as much as KD or Kyrie.
Unfortunately, early returns for Rivers' prediction don't look great. Playing just 16 minutes (his lowest amount since Nov. 28), Simmons tallied just four points, three assists, and one block while taking just three field goal attempts. He never made it to the foul line.
Time will tell if he can take advantage of the spacing provided by a bevy of 3-and-D archetypes and attack downhill more often. But with Simmons' trade value as low as ever, there's no better time than now to give Simmons the green light that he hasn't had since his time in Philly.
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