The NBA-worst Sixers, standing at 2-12 as they find new lows day after day, are back in Philadelphia for three games on their home floor. Up first: a Friday night battle against Ben Simmons and the Brooklyn Nets.
Here to give us an update on all things Simmons as well as primers on some Nets veterans set to be made available for trade and more is Lucas Kaplan, who writes for NetsDaily and Swish Theory while also hosting The Backcourt Podcast.
Let's talk to Lucas:
Adam Aaronson: I have to lead with a Simmons question. He is in the final year of the five-year max contract the Sixers signed him to during their disastrous 2019 offseason. How has Simmons' season gone, and how much hope is there that he can become a quality NBA contributor again?
Lucas Kaplan: There are stretches where Simmons is at the center of a Brooklyn lineup that goes on a run early in the second quarter or late in the third or something where he’s pleasant enough to watch. Nets head coach Jordi Fernández will surround him with four competent three-point shooters and if they get any stops they push the ball, where Simmons is still capable of finding open shooters and cutters. When they played in New Orleans on the last game of a road trip, they looked quite sluggish until Simmons dropped ten assists in the first half, just encouraging his teammates to fill corners and lanes.
But that’s the exception; Simmons touches the ball nearly as often as guys like Nikola Jokić and Trae Young, but shoots the ball at late-stage PJ Tucker frequencies. Playing him next to Nic Claxton — or any non-shooting big — is a whole thing, and it has been for two seasons. You guys know the deal.
The Ben Simmons Experience in Brooklyn is not so much of an experience anyway. Beyond the few plays a month that go viral for his bewildering passivity on offense, there’s not much to expend energy over. It’s kind of nice; at least he’s healthy and playing, role players that may struggle to create but can at least move around the floor (Jalen Wilson, Ziaire Williams, Keon Johnson) seem to enjoy playing with him. They often benefit from it.
Simmons is who he is, a rotational oddity that wouldn’t see the floor in a playoff setting but is fine to have around. Some Nets fans try — believe me — but there’s no point to getting worked up over his (expiring) salary, play-style, and health. It’s all just kind of there.
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AA: Fernández is in his first year on the job as Nets head coach and has impressed plenty of folks. What have you taken away from his first month or so on the job?
LK: Jordi gets an A+ so far, no questions asked. So far, these guys play extremely hard and execute the game-plan every single night, sometimes without any available big man, and that’s kept them in games. They (6-9) have a microscopically better net rating than the Phoenix Suns (9-7), and could easily have their record if they hadn’t blown some wins at the gun.
It is, and I cannot stress this enough, early, but people are happy. Jordi is charming and occasionally playful with the media, but straightforwardly honest as well. Then you talk to players or Brooklyn staffers, and they say, ‘yeah, that’s just how Jordi is.’
People like Jordi despite, their whole focus in the preseason — even with a lot of veterans in trade rumor purgatory — being conditioning and physical toughness. Their identity has clearly been instilled, as well as an offense that gets them a ton of drive-and-kick threes. The vibes are, finally, great. But so is the basketball. The last time that was true for Brooklyn was in the late-spring of 2021, a time neither of us need to revisit.
In sum, people seem to like Jordi not (just) because he is likable, but because he is good.
AA: The Nets are expected to take trade calls on most of their veteran contributors when the deadline nears in a few months. Is there one in particular who the Sixers should have interest in?
LK: You want to trade Caleb Martin, Kelly Oubre Jr. and KJ Martin for Cameron Johnson? Because Johnson is really hooping to start the season, constantly making the complementary positive plays on each end that would help any great roster, but barring a three-to-four team mega-deal at the deadline, that’s the only pathway to Philly acquiring his $23.6 million salary.
The answer, realistically, is Dorian Finney-Smith. He’s far less productive than Johnson on offense, but hey, he is shooting above 40 percent from three this season while guarding everybody from, literally, Zach Edey to LaMelo Ball. He’s Dorian Finney-Smith, you know what he’s going to give you, it’s going to be useful, and there are more permutations of Sixers that get Philly to $15 million in outgoing salary. Plus, the draft compensation required to acquire Finney-Smith will certainly be lower than what it takes to nab Johnson, who should go for a real-deal first-round pick.
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More Sixers-Nets information
• Date/Time: Nov. 22, 7:00 p.m. EST
• TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
• Spread: Sixers -5.5
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