The Nets plan with Ben Simmons' minutes going forward
After battling a series of injuries throughout the opening weeks of the regular season, Ben Simmons is feeling "great" and worry-free about his physical health. That isn't going to change the team continuing to grasp a cautious approach with their point forward for the near future.
Simmons has played in only 19 of the 29 games due to injury stints of left knee soreness (swelling) and a left lateral calf strain. Both injuries are deemed related to each other and occurred because of the minutes' load he carried during Brooklyn's tough stretch of games. In fact, he suffered the calf strain in the second game of a back-to-back against the Orlando Magic last month.
Of course, that comes after Simmons' injury management for his lower back. He underwent a microdiscectomy in the opening weeks of the off-season. When you add it all up, there's no surprise the team remains cautious with their 26-year-old star's minutes load.
“There's a lot that goes into it because the player wants to play minutes also. So you have this honest conversation about what's too much," said Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn after Thursday's practice. "I think at the beginning, you know, we wanted to continue to push Ben to play as many games as possible and for him to grow with the group on the floor. I think we learned maybe we pushed a little bit too much for a guy that hadn't played in a long time. And so I think sometimes you kind of learn by going through the situation and was smarter on the other side hopefully."
On the other side, Simmons acknowledged that he doesn't hold a strong say about extending his minutes. The Nets performance staff and Vaughn hold the upper hand in that conversation.
"I'm not a doctor bro, like, I don't make that decision," Simmons said after Thursday's practice. "I can only tell them how I feel, but at the same time, I'm going to trust their decision and what they think is best for me."
Simmons, who is hovering around a 20-minute playing restriction since returning from injury, is hungry for an increase in his playing time. At the same time, he knows the team doesn't want to take any more risks to riddle his health for when the games matter most.
"It's tough because once I'm out there, I want to stay out there," Simmons stated. "But we're, playing for the long term, you know? We want to get to the playoffs healthy and do the right thing."
The Nets head coach hasn't solidified a minutes limit for Simmons for Friday's game against the Toronto Raptors. The same follows veteran wing T.J. Warren, who has played five games since returning after a near two-year injury absence. As it stands, the plan is to find a healthy balance between their current minute limit and not overburden them.
"I think we've continued to build their minutes up but not to the point where it's too many. We want both of those guys to be healthy at the end of the year," Vaughn said. "We got to be smart about how we use those minutes going forward, whether that's back to backs how we use those minutes, whether that is how many minutes they play in a single game. I think we have enough depth to use their minutes judiciously and to be able to play at a pace that we want to and still play hard."
There's no secret Vaughn has been very cautious with a number of players - Joe Harris, Seth Curry, Warren, Simmons - who underwent off-season surgeries in the off-season, especially during the seven played back-to-backs. The loaded back-to-back slate is tied for second-most played in the league through 29 games.
The Nets' head coach hasn't shut down the possibility of not playing Simmons in one game of the remaining back-to-backs. That goes for all players on the roster.
"We don’t have another [back-to-back] until January 19, maybe somewhere around there. But at the end of the day I think we want all of our guys playing in all of the games," he said. "So yes, we want to work towards all of our guys being in a position to play back-to-backs."
The other element tied to not overloading Simmons' minute load is the team's ongoing task of putting the point forward in the best positions to succeed. It's a puzzle Vaughn and the coaching staff are experimenting with.
"He’s just so unique," said Vaughn on Simmons. "Who you’re going to have out there on the floor with him, what the spacing is going to look like, what he’s going to look like with the basketball in his hands, where he’s going to be without the basketball in his hands. So we’re always trying to put him in a position to succeed. And we’re still messing around with that, where he’s at. We worked on that today with him with the ball [and] without the ball."
