It’s still early but the early returns on Ben Simmons and the Brooklyn Nets aren’t great.
Entering this season, there were many that expected the Brooklyn Nets to be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Ben Simmons was finally healthy, and Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were on the same page with the franchise (or appeared to be) after a disjointed offseason.
Quite frankly, I was one of those people too.
Through the first five games of the season, however, the Nets have been everything but that. In fact, they’ve barely won. Through the first week-plus of the season, the Nets are 1-4 and don’t look like a team that will be consistent enough to compete in the East.
Again, it’s early but the initial returns for the Nets are not great.
Ben Simmons is struggling
And, individually, the same can be said about Simmons, who is playing for the first time in a year and a half. In five games, Simmons is averaging six points, seven assists, and six rebounds per game on 44 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent from the free-throw line.
He also has failed to score in double-figures in any game this season.
Simmons looks hesitant, rusty, and unsure about what his fit will be on this team. It’s strange to see a player as talented as Simmons essentially have no confidence at all. The hope is that most of that is due to rust and the time he took off, but there are no guarantees that Simmons is going to be the player he was before all the noise around him began.
The Nets’ struggles go well beyond Simmons. Their bench is one of the lowest-scoring benches in the league, scoring only 23.6 points per game. That ranks sixth-worst in the league.
Overall, the Nets have the 17th-ranked offensive rating and the worst defensive rating in the league. Brooklyn is lost and they don’t have any one part of their game that they can lean on – other than Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving doing amazing things when plays break down.
Feel free to chalk up the early-season Nets’ struggles to rust and getting used to each other but there are signs that their issues stretch well beyond that. Simmons looks like a shell of himself, and it’s already been proven that Durant and Kyrie can’t carry the Nets alone.
If this trend continues, I can’t help but wonder what will happen next for the Nets. Perhaps some of that offseason noise returns, in what could end up being a worst-case scenario for the team.