Ben Simmons

The Nets entered this regular season as the odds-on favorites to win the NBA title. Tuesday morning, Brooklyn woke as the only playoff team swept out of the ...

With Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, competing for a championship will be the only measure that deems any Brooklyn season as satisfactory—especially if Simmons can return to full strength. A decorated former player doesn't exactly need the dramatic trappings of a superteam and all the time away from family that coaching demands. Any front office ousted from the first round, especially for a team that failed to win a single game, has to consider wholesale changes. Nets staffers have further envisioned the added playmaking Simmons could provide both in transition and the half court, either facilitating on the ball or morphing into a devastating pick-and-roll partner for Durant and Irving, like a supersized, better-passing Bruce Brown. Boston's defensive scheme grinded Brooklyn's once-high-octane offense to a halt, and the Nets struggled to get into much half-court action before much of the shot clock had already disappeared. There's been no indication that Durant's opinion on Nash has changed, and he first bristled when asked about his faith in the coach on Monday night. Similar patterns of uncompetitive behavior date back to Simmons' collegiate days at LSU, when draft evaluators wondered if he was a better bet than Brandon Ingram for the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA draft. After visiting the floor for pregame warm-ups prior to Game 3, Simmons did not partake in any pregame work Monday and was not present on the bench alongside his teammates for Game 4, which one source told B/R was because of his lingering back discomfort. Simmons certainly wouldn't have debuted on the road in front of a hostile Boston crowd for Game 5. Instead, the Nets ruled Simmons out of Game 4 altogether, sources said, as a sense of fatigue from the situation and general disappointment seemed to permeate the franchise. But Simmons was still resistant, sources told B/R, and seemed dead set on sitting the remainder of the season if Philadelphia hadn't moved him before the deadline. There had been various people close to him encouraging him to retake the floor, even under limited minutes, to establish a deeper connection with teammates ahead of next season, sources said. Tuesday morning, Brooklyn woke as the only playoff team swept out of the first round.

Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal took aim at Ben Simmons over what he called a “punk move” after the former 76er was nowhere to be seen in the ...

Simmons requested a trade and refused to play for the 76ers this season, citing mental health concerns. We call this a punk move," he said on TNT’s "Inside the NBA." ‘I’m not going to play, my back hurt.' We all know what that is. He continued: "If you’re not going to play, don't say you’re going to play. "In the hood, we call this a punk move. I’m going to do this.’ That was a punk move."

A disastrous sweep by the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs leaves owner Joe Tsai and the Nets front office with a slew of key offseason decisions ...

An old Ben Simmons Tweet from the 2020 NBA playoffs has resurfaced. The post came immediately after Simmons, who was with the 76ers at the time, had been swept ...

An old Ben Simmons Tweet from the 2020 NBA playoffs has resurfaced. Simmons has been away from the NBA since the end of the last season. Ben Simmons has been subjected to a lot of criticism over the course of the NBA season.

Ben Simmons when on the court is one of the best defensive players and playmakers in the league. He is a 3-time All-Star that impacts the game on many ...

And while he admitted the team did get a bunch of calls about a possible swap, Lynch said he can’t envision the team actually pulling the trigger to move Samuel. San Francisco 49ers GM acknowledges Deebo Samuel trade request “I can’t ever imagine wanting to move on from Deebo. You put yourself through the exercises of, even though we don’t have a first-round pick, you have to be thorough in this process and prepare for everything,” Lynch said [h/t ESPN]. “So, you go through it and do that. In just a matter of weeks, Samuel went from being a player on the 49ers offense with superstar potential and a year away from free agency to a disgruntled athlete unhappy with his current situation and wanting out of San Francisco. While rumblings of his happiness had reverberated from social media earlier this month, it wasn’t until he reportedly told ESPN’s Jeff Darlington last week that he officially requested a trade that things became real. On Monday, the San Francisco 49ers GM took part in a 30-minute media scrum in the lead-up to Thursday’s NFL Draft and was asked about the situation with the All-Pro wideout. The Mexico native had been set to play the 2022 season with the Toros de Tijuana in his home country before signing with Arizona. At the time, Pérez announced that this year with the Toros would be his final in professional baseball. The D-Backs have a week to trade Pérez or place him on waivers, and it remains to be seen whether the 40-year-old will look to continue his MLB career. The league and union agreed to expand active rosters by a pair of players for the season’s first couple weeks this year. "So those that run to and not from competition, those that embrace competition and the intensity of it, and the anxiety maybe associated with it — I think they have a leg up. No, but it was the final home game, and Getzlaf, 36, decided to make it the final game of his career and sit out the Ducks’ remaining road games. The look here for Desmond Bane is to bet his under for his Rebounds + Assists. The line is set at 8.5, which feels strange considering he hasn't gone over that total in any of the eight games against Minnesota this season. The series is heading to a potential clinching Game 5 for the Heat, and if Young and the Hawks want to extend their postseason stay, it falls on their star's shoulders. There's no doubt that he's a fantastic player on the court, but if there are still health issues to sort out then he has to deal with that and get fully healthy. He is a 3-time All-Star that impacts the game on many levels, and offensively, he can finish well at the rim.