The Ben Simmons situation this season ended bizarrely, as we all suspected, but it could have been even weirder.
You know the story by now. Simmons, due to mental health struggles and a back injury, did not play at all for the Brooklyn Nets this season after not playing at all for the Philadelphia 76ers in the front half of the campaign.
He supposedly was going to play in Brooklyn’s eventual Game 4 loss to the Boston Celtics, but was ruled out one day after the Nets went down 3-0 in the series. And though he had appeared on the bench in street clothes earlier in the series, he was a no-show for Game 4, which was at home.
It was a messy situation. But in an interesting turn of events, The Athletic’s Shams Charania said Wednesday on the “Pat McAfee Show” that even if he did dress for Game 4, the Nets might not have used him.
"At this point, it’s all mental with Ben Simmons," Charania said. "He’s got to get to the point this offseason – they have four, five months here, the Nets, Ben Simmons, people around Ben Simmons that care about him – to make sure that he gets on the right track. This is the most important offseason for Ben Simmons’ career. He’s at a crossroads of his career right now because of the way it went and Philly and then he gets to Brooklyn.
"There was an expectation around that organization that at least he’ll be in uniform and available to play for Steve Nash. I’m told that even if he was in uniform, there was a chance he might not have even played in Game 4 but at least he was making the effort, at least he was in uniform, at least being able to be present around the team, and he could just not get there."
Had that come to pass, it would have created a whole different set of questions around the ordeal. From a strategy standpoint though, there might have been at least some value for Nash, as the Celtics would have needed to operate like Simmons could come off the bench at any moment. Would that have swung things in a different direction for Brooklyn? Probably not, but it would have been something for Ime Udoka to think about.
At this point, it doesn’t really matter. The Nets season went down the tubes for a variety of reasons, and now they have to go back to the drawing board after once again coming up short.
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