The Brooklyn Nets got some big news out of the way earlier on Thursday. NYC Mayor Eric Adams explained his rationale for changing local vaccine mandate rules to make an exception for star athletes like Kyrie Irving, but not other working-class folks.

Irving is now allowed to play in home games at Barclays Center despite not being vaccinated for COVID and its variants. Then the team got some more positive news from Shams Charania of The Athletic regarding another Australian-born player on the team.

Simmons hasn't played a single game this season. In fact, he hasn't played any since June 20th, 2021 when the Philadelphia 76ers were eliminated from playoffs at home by Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks.

Simmons reportedly kept in great shape this year but he flared up a chronic back issue he has when trying to ramp up to game shape. It's been reported that he has a herniated disc at the L-4 area of his lower back. He dealt with a nerve impingement in the area back in 2020. He doesn't have a timeline to return now but he did receive an epidural not long ago to at least mitigate symptoms. Still, all hope is not lost.

Per his appearance on the Pat McAfee show, here's what Shams Charania had to say on the Ben front:

“His goal is to play. There's obviously an uncertainty whether he'll be able to play…. [Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant] those two guys are so lethal offensively it's like Ben Simmons is the missing piece on this team, really… Ben Simmons is literally exactly what the Nets need. But they're gonna be cautious, the last thing you want to do, especially with a back injury, is bring him back, he's got this disc issue, and you rush it. I think they're gonna be cautious with it, but there's an expectation on the Nets that Ben Simmons will play this year. It's just gonna be about him ramping up and feeling healthy. The problem with him, it seems like every time he's gotten back to the [practice] floor…he's had something, a flare up,  in his back. And so the hope is that now that he had the epidural injection last week, he feels better and hopefully, whether it's in a week, or whenever it gets back on the floor, and tries to ramp up.”

As Shams notes, Simmons is now in many ways the perfect fit for this team. The way Durant and Irving are scoring the ball, the Nets won't yearn for Simmons to shoot jump shots like Sixers fans used to yearn.

Nets fans don't currently yearn for Nic Claxton, Andre Drummond, Bruce Brown, or James Johnson to put up a lot of threes. More than likely Simmons would be replacing one of them for minutes if healthy. That means he probably wouldn't dramatically alter the composition of their offense.

The fact that Irving is now back full time could be big here too. If they can extend their season, by winning Play-In and eventually playoff games, it gives Simmons more time to heal and then get back to game shape.

It's possible there could be a positive domino effect for the team there. Right now the Nets have the 22nd ranked defense. Over the last 32 games played, dating back to Durant's knee sprain, they have the league's 27th ranked (or fourth worst) defense.

Imagine what type of lift having a healthy 2021 Defensive Player of the Year candidate (who can credibly guard four or even five positions) could give a team who just reinstitutes Irving full time?

Still, the date keeps getting moved back.

Back in mid-March, Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN said the Nets were hopeful that Simmons could get back in time for the final few regular-season games. Now Shams makes it sound like they're merely hopeful he might get back at all (read: playoffs) depending on how far they went.

But that's still better than the opposite type of update where they're no longer even hopeful. That's what happened with Joe Harris as he needed a second ankle surgery. Head coach Steve Nash said he thinks the epidural had some effect on his symptoms last week. But we're still waiting to see if Simmons can get back to even one-on-one work in practice. Imagine if Simmons were eligible to return for a playoff series vs. Joel Embiid and his old team in the first round?

That would be something. Nets fans have had some good news, this update could represent some more. A team whose favored to win the East as is maybe returning a third All-Star? As if Jimmy Butler's Heat didn't already have enough to fight about.