Kevin Durant Praises Ben Simmons Insurgence: 'It Gives All Of Us Confidence'

After stringing together the best performances of his short Brooklyn Nets career, Kevin Durant is excited for Ben Simmons.

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The Brooklyn Nets swingman Ben Simmons is starting to show flashes of his old self. Those flashes are on both ends of the floor and the rise in confidence is being absorbed by his teammates. On Thursday night in Portland, his big performance left Kevin Durant excited for what's ahead. 

"I mean, he shot them like he was confident and he ran back down the court like he knew it was going in. When he’s playing aggressive like that when he’s downhill, when he’s talking like that, he did it all for us tonight," said Durant on Simmons performance in the 109-107 win over the Portland Trail Blazers Thursday night. "I’m excited for him because this is the type of game we all needed to see. I think everybody else on the outside, basketball fans in general, was loving it and couldn’t wait to see this type of performance from him. We expect that from him every night.” 

Simmons is finally playing with a pep in his step. After missing the entire 2021-22 NBA season, undergoing off-season back surgery, then having battles with left knee soreness, he's put together back-to-back outings that certainly impressed everyone. 

He played a season-high 32 minutes against the Trail Blazers and concluded the best outing of the season with his first Nets double-double of 15 points (6-of-6 shooting from the field), 13 boards, and dished seven assists in the process. 

“Incredible, incredible,” said Durant on Simmons performance. “I’m just happy for him because he’s been trying to get his form back, trying to figure his rhythm out. Tonight, I think he did a good job of just talking up, commanding the offense, and commanding the team on the defensive side of the ball. He was just incredible tonight. We want to keep building on that. He controlled the game and was able to get us back into it.” 

“It just gives us all confidence. Look at how many open shots we got tonight. Royce [O’Neale] got a lot of wide open threes, Joe [Harris] got started with some threes, Yuta [Watanabe] got some threes, Seth [Curry] got some shots. I think Ben just getting downhill, making plays, and combining that with Royce with 11 assists, myself who can create a little bit off the dribble. It just gives us more weapons out there on the floor.” 

The swingman was challenged late game by the Blazers, who intentionally sent him to the foul line in crunch time. Portland's plan backfired as Simmons went 3-of-4 from the line to help Brooklyn escape with a critical win. 

“To be honest, we had no doubts when he walked up there,” said Durant on Simmons shooting free throws late in the fourth. “I felt like we were all confident just the way the game was flowing and just the way he was playing. Everybody felt his energy to start the game so I felt super confident when he went up there. So 3-for-4 in crunch time like that, that was key for us. We needed those.” 

Simmons has thrived off the bench and is now averaging 6.6 points, 6.7 boards, and 5.7 assists in 27.1 minutes per game.