Ben Simmons practiced with the Sixers for the first time on Sunday, but it sounds like he still has a ways to go before seeing any game action.
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers told reporters on Sunday that he does not believe that the All-Star guard is in game shape yet.
“I don’t know yet, I’m going to wait and see,” Rivers said. “Conditioning, I would say, just watching him, I thought he was in decent shape. Still not obviously game shape. He can do all that stuff, but overall, yeah.”
Simmons had been holding out for training camp and most of preseason with hopes to be traded in what got ugly at times – with reports from his camp saying that Simmons was not a fit with star center Joel Embiid.
The 25-year-old did not speak to reporters on Sunday, but Rivers said there did not seem to be any hard feelings as the team welcomed him back.
“We just introduced like we always do when a new guy comes back or the old guys come back. We jokingly did it,” Rivers said. ‘We did it with Tobias [Harris] as well, because he’s been on vacation and [Thybulle] Matisse as well. But as I told you before, the players pretty much welcome guys back.”
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Harris also told reporters everything was fine with Simmons’ return.
“We got an opening to our season coming up. Truth be told, that’s honestly where our focus is,” Harris said. “We’re grown men here. This is not middle school…Nah, as soon as we step on that floor, it’s just basketball and honestly that’s the way it should be. We’re here for one thing, that’s to be the best team we can be and compete, get better as a group. So all the envrgy and this or that, the vibe was what it was.
“Was it perfect? No. But we’re here to do a job and that’s to win basketball games. So, put our big boy pants on the floor and we get on the floor and do what we do.”
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