The Nets have no answers regarding Ben Simmons’ present and future. They don’t even have any answers regarding his recent past or the first hints at his back injury.
It is unclear if coach Steve Nash and company are in the dark or simply not flipping on the lights for the public, but there is no clarity on the greatest mystery for team that already had a pretty major one, with unvaccinated star Kyrie Irving still unable to play at home.
At least the Nets know where they stand on Irving, whose hopes for full-time status lie with the mayor’s office changing city mandates because he has shown no willingness to be vaccinated. With Simmons, who was acquired Feb. 10 in the James Harden trade, but has yet to make his Nets debut, there only are clouds.
Simmons, who told the Nets that he had back issues shortly after his workouts began, received an epidural shot Tuesday intended to relieve pain and, the team hoped, accelerate the healing process. It typically takes a few days for its impact to take effect. Three days later, is Simmons feeling better?
“I don’t have any update on that,” Nash said before the Nets beat the Trail Blazers, 128-123, on Friday night at Barclays Center.
Has Simmons had an MRI exam?
“I believe he has, but I think that’s old news,” Nash said of a previously unreported development. “That was a couple weeks ago.”
Did the exam come back clean?
“What does ‘clean’ mean?” Nash asked. “I think he’s got a back … something with his back.”
Such as a strain?
“Yeah,” Nash said of an injury that typically has been termed as back “soreness” or “tightness.”
Just five weeks after he was landed in the blockbuster deal that ushered Harden to Philadelphia,There is no timetable either for Simmons’ return to the court or to practice. According to Nash, Simmons had done individual workouts then encountered the “flare-up.” He has yet to return to individual workouts, which would be the first step toward a ramp-up toward game action.
The Nets typically do not allow their players to take the court until they have had three high-intensity practices.
Simmons, 25, has a lengthy history of back issues — this is the fourth time in two years his back has put him on the sideline — and is quickly running out of time on the season. The Nets have 11 regular-season games left, and Irving will be eligible to play just three of them. Even if Simmons plays this season, chemistry could be a problem.
Asked what he would need to see from Simmons for him to return to practice, Nash said: “That’s really a question for the medical staff. I don’t know the ins and outs of his back injury.”
Seth Curry was excellent in his return after missing three games with a left-ankle sprain. He scored 27 points, but that does not mean his ankle is fully healed.
Curry said he likely will be dealing with the ailment all season and postseason. He hopes that staying off of it during the offseason will help it heal.
Curry missed time both last season and this season after spraining his left ankle. The shooting guard missed five games in January while with the 76ers with what the team termed “ankle soreness.”
“It’s been bothering me a while,” Curry said Friday morning at the shoot-around. “It’s probably not going to fully go away [until] the end of the season.”
There is no date yet on which the unvaccinated Irving can take the court at Barclays Center for the first time this season.
The Nets received more of the same news concerning the private sector vaccine mandate in the first briefing from Dr. Ashwin Vasan, New York City’s new health commissioner.
“I think it’s indefinite at this point,” Vasan, who succeeded Dr. Dave A. Chokshi earlier this month, told reporters Friday. “People who have tried to predict what’s going to happen in the future for this pandemic have repeatedly found egg on their face, as they say. I’m not going to do that here today.”
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