DENVER — Jacque Vaughn has repeatedly insisted the Nets haven’t discussed shutting injured Ben Simmons down.
But asked Sunday if Simmons is coming back this season, Vaughn was conspicuously noncommittal.
“Yeah, I think first of all I’ll just be pretty simple. He’s still managing his back and knee soreness,” Vaughn said cryptically. “He’s back home in Brooklyn. We’ll get a chance to kind of see where he’s at when we get back home after this trip.”
Simmons missed his 10th consecutive game Sunday in the Nets’ 122-120 win over the Nuggets, and his 26th of the season.
He hasn’t played since before the NBA All-Star break, when he had fluid in his left knee drained and a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection.
The Nets put Simmons’ sore knee on a strengthening program, and since then his troublesome back has flared up again.
Simmons missed all of last season with a herniated L-4 disk in his back and eventually required a microdiscectomy procedure in May.
The three-time All-Star, who has been robbed of his explosion, is averaging 6.9 points, 6.3 boards, 6.1 assists and 43.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line, all career-lows.
With Simmons making $37.9 million next season and $40.3 in 2024-25, getting him back to a reasonable facsimile of his former self is a top priority.
Point guard Spencer Dinwiddie set a career-high with 16 assists.
It is the highest assist total for a Net this season.
“Spencer 16 assists, unbelievable,” Vaughn said. “He’s tuned in and he’s turned on. So every night he’s producing for us, he’s learning how to play with this group. He’s learning when to be aggressive, when to get to the rim, how to manage this group.And he’s tuned in to each individual, whether that’s in the huddle, whether that’s the last play of the game, how are we going to cover that? And then he’s producing; he’s been turned on.”
Center Nic Claxton (20 points, six rebounds, five assists) had the first 20/5/5 game of his career.
He did a great job running the lob game with Dinwiddie, shot 8-for-9 from the floor and even went 4 of 4 from the foul line.
“I was in a good rhythm,” Claxton shrugged. “They came out and they were trapping. Every time I was setting the screen, [Nikola] Jokic was going out and blitzing. It kind of gave me that feeling of how things used to be every time teams would trap [Kyrie Irving] and KD [Kevin Durant], so I’m used to being playing in that pocket and I was able to make some good plays for the team.”
Besides the free-throw shooting, the most encouraging sight might have been his pull-up jumper from the baseline, something he hasn’t shown since college.
Even Dinwiddie admitted it was the most shocking play of the afternoon.
“For sure, 1,000 percent. Now that was the most surprising play of the game,” Dinwiddie said. “[Screw] the assists. He did a one dribble pull up and made it.”
