Ben Simmons is ramping up his activity and we are getting a clearer picture of when the former No. 1 overall pick will make his debut for the Nets.
“He’s getting close. It’s going to be more like weeks rather than months,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne said on NBA Today (h/t to NetsDaily’s Alex Sturn).
Despite the delay, there are plenty of reasons for optimism with regard to Simmons’ fit on the Nets. As our own Sameer Kumar wrote in FortyEightMinutes’ NBA Trade Deadline Wordle Reactions, Simmons’s skill set should allow him to fit in well alongside his new star teammates.
Having (Kyrie Irving) and (Kevin Durant) stretch the floor will give Simmons all the room he needs to operate. Simmons is also the elite on-ball and switchable defender the Nets so desperately needed.
More Ben Simmons-Sixers Rumors
Expect plenty of anonymous sources from Philadelphia trickling out stories about Simmons over the next several months and Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer has the latest one.
Several league sources have painted a picture of a paranoid, jealous, entitled young man: frustrated at his own shortcomings, angry that his limited style of play drew criticism, and so stubborn that his refusal to accept coaching led to debilitating anxieties entirely of his own making…
Yikes.
Hayes went on to write about Simmons’ time playing alongside Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid, indicating that Simmons would typically finish his pregame workout before both of his fellow All-Stars.
This put Simmons in the locker room without Butler and Embiid for several minutes. Simmons owned the room in their absence. He told the jokes. He did the teasing. He was the alpha dog.
Then, in came Jimmy and Joel, and Simmons turned tail. Embiid commanded an entire wall of lockers to the right of the entry door. Everyone deferred to him, except Butler. The place got pretty quiet, and when anything was said, Butler usually said it. With Butler in the room, Simmons virtually disappeared.
“That dynamic is accurate,” a former Sixers employee told Hayes.
The Sixers infamously traded Jimmy Butler away (via sign-and-trade) and Embiid has since indicated that the club did so with Simmons in mind. Philadelphia ushers in a new chapter with James Harden expected to make his debut this week.
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