For Brooklyn Nets fans, Ben Simmons' latest injury is “Deja Vu all over again,” to quote Yankees legend Yogi Berra. The three-time All-Star was hobbled briefly by a seemingly inconsequential play during a Nov. 6 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Simmons finished the game, and neither he nor head coach Jacque Vaughn mentioned an injury postgame.

Yet, the Aussie popped up on Brooklyn's injury report with “hip soreness” before their next game. He was ruled out soon after. One surprise absence turned into two, then three, then four, before Simmons' agent, Bernie Lee, set the record straight Tuesday. His client had undergone an MRI, which revealed “nerve irritation” that would sideline him indefinitely.

Less than an hour later, the Nets released a statement calling Simmons' injury a “nerve impingement,” the same ailment that ended his season last year, although in a different area of his back and supposedly less severe. He would be reevaluated in a week, meaning his absence will extend to at least seven games.

Lee downplayed long-term concerns, calling the injury “nothing similar” to what his client experienced last season despite the similar language. He said Simmons' absence “should be on the shorter side of things,” but there will be a “conservative approach” based on his injury history.

Ben Simmons is no stranger to injury uncertainty

Ben Simmons with question marks and red medical symbol around him

The unclear and contradictory statements regarding Ben Simmons' status are par for the course. The 27-year-old missed three extended periods during the first half of last season with knee, calf and back ailments. He was then forced out at the All-Star break, and it took the Nets over a month to shut him down for the season despite repeated insistence that they had no intention of doing so.

Brian Lewis of the New York Post consulted with a back specialist Wednesday, who said Simmons' current timetable should be 2-3 weeks. However, the specialist said the injury can be “reoccurring” and unpredictable, adding that the disc Simmons had surgery on during the 2022 offseason “will never be what it was.”

“It’ll never be 100 percent right. It’s fixed, but his analogy was like patching a tire. The patch could hold, but it might not,” Lewis said.

After three years of unavailability, Simmons' latest injury signals a troubling reality for Brooklyn: they cannot rely on their highest-paid player.

Absent the prolific isolation scoring of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets named Simmons their starting point guard ahead of this season. They placed his elite fast-break orchestration at the center of their offense and made it no secret they intended to play in the half court as little as possible.

The strategy worked well initially. Before Simmons' injury, Brooklyn ranked seventh in offensive rating while scoring the second-most fast-break points in the NBA. He is adding 4.5 points per 100 possessions in transition, ranking in the 94th percentile among NBA players, per Cleaning the Glass.

Simmons also played a significant role in improving the team's rebounding, grabbing 10.8 boards per game, the 11th-most in the NBA.

However, he has shown even less willingness to shoot than last season, something Nets fans may not have thought possible. Simmons is attempting just 6.8 shots per 36 minutes, one less than 2022-23, and has been to the free-throw line twice in six games.

His usage rate is a career-low 15.6 percent, placing him in the 13th percentile among NBA points guards. Brooklyn is scoring 3.8 fewer points per 100 half-court plays with Simmons on the floor.

Simmons' per-36 field goal attempts have declined every season of his NBA career.

His passivity as a scorer is so glaring that Vaughn was forced to bench him down the stretch of several games, even with Nic Claxton sidelined. The coach admitted Simmons' debilitating effect on Brooklyn's half-court offense before Tuesday's win over Orlando.

“We were top six in transition with Ben, bottom five without Ben. Better executing in the half court without Ben, not with Ben. So it’s two different teams,” he said.

If Vaughn can admit this, he and general manager Sean Marks should realize Simmons cannot be the focal point of the team's offensive identity moving forward.

Nets can't rely on Ben Simmons

The Nets cannot justifiably take the ball out of the hands of blossoming offensive players like Cam Thomas, Mikal Bridges, and Cam Johnson, or even a veteran like Spencer Dinwiddie, who, despite offering the team's best blend of scoring and facilitation, was a bystander early this season. They cannot derail the team's half-court offense by playing Simmons alongside a non-shooting center in Nic Claxton, whose encouraging offensive development will be harmed by his presence.

Not for Ben Simmons, who has shown he cannot stay on the floor over the last three seasons and has regressed as a half-court offensive player every year of his career.

None of this is to say Simmons isn't an impactful player. In a perfect system, the 6-foot-10 former No. 1 pick provides a unique skill set that can bolster a team on both ends of the floor. But after three straight seasons of unpredictable injury patterns and a career-long sample size of a shrinking offensive skill set, the Nets can no longer strive to build that system at the expense of their other players.

Vaughn had already reached this conclusion last season when he moved Simmons to the bench two games after taking over as head coach, a decision that likely played a role in their rocky relationship. Mindful of Simmons' poor half-court fit alongside Claxton, the coach deployed him in limited minutes as a small-ball point center, allowing him to push the pace and spray to shooters in a five-out offense.

But after several trips to Miami this summer to watch Simmons work out, Vaughn reluctantly gave him the keys to the offense.

Simmons is under contract for $37 million this season and $40 million in 2024-25, meaning he will be with the Nets for the foreseeable future. When he returns, he should have a role in Brooklyn's rotation. However, after his latest extended absence, it should be closer to Vaughn's model last season than what we saw early this year.

The days of the Nets maneuvering stylistically to fit Ben Simmons into a feature role should be in the rearview.