The Brooklyn Nets made an absolute blockbuster of a trade cutting bait on declining, disgruntled, soon-to-be-maxed superstar James Harden in favor of Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and a pair of first round picks.

The headliner there is Simmons, the 25 year-old, two-time All-Star out of Melbourne, Australia. He's one of the best defensive and transition players in the entire NBA.

But one of the key reasons Simmons was traded from Philly is because he has some mental health struggles. That factored into his no longer wanting to play for the team that drafted him, nearly six years ago. These are struggles Simmons has admitted persisted before the last calendar year.

Desperate for wins, trying to avoid some play-in scenarios, many Nets fans are curious when Simmons will be able to suit up and showcase his best-in-class defensive chops and transition game.

Earlier this month ESPN's Ramona Shelburne dropped the following update:

But before the Nets' first game after the All-Star break, vs. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics, head coach Steve Nash made it sound like conditioning is the biggest hurdle for Simmons now.

What's the biggest reason he isn't playing now? Is it conditioning or something else?

“Conditioning, just got to try and get him to a place where he can, you know it's been a long lay off so he hasn't played NBA basketball for a long time. So just try and work through that,” Nash said.

The head coach gave a general update on Simmons as well as Kevin Durant and Joe Harris. KD has been out with a sprained knee since mid January and Harris suffered setbacks following November ankle surgery. Durant sounds like he's almost there. Harris doesn't sound particularly close. Simmons is in between.

“In general, terms to return to play, you have to have a number of high intensity workouts,” detailed Steve Nash. “So playing at full capacity, typically three times before you can return without incident, and [Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, and Joe Harris are] at different stages of that,” Nash said. “Some are in the high intensity bucket already, some are not… I think Kevin's probably the closest but has some time to make up still. Ben and Joe trail behind him.”

There hasn't been much mention from the head coach that it's the mental health stuff keeping Simmons from seeing the floor now. Nash didn't want to put words in his player's mouth. He made sure to be supportive of a young player who figures to play a very prominent role in the team's future title hopes alongside Durant and Irving.

“Well I think it's unfair for me to talk about Ben's headspace, but all I can say is we're excited to have him with us and getting him back to activity after such a long layoff where he wasn't around a group. These are periods that we really wanna take our time to assess,” Nash said, referring to the fact Simmons hasn't played since June of 2021.

Based on Durant's return looking sooner than Simmons, perhaps fans can safely conclude Simmons won't return before March. But it would be a huge boost to their rotation if he were ready to go sometime in the near future. There are only 23 games left before the playoffs and Kyrie Irving is only eligible for eight of those. That makes the runner up Defensive Player of the Year and former All-NBA third-teamer all the more valuable. They have a showdown looming vs. Simmons' former team the 76ers on March 10th. That would be something to look forward to if he were ready by then.