It was just two calendar years ago that Ben Simmons was preparing to make his second appearance in the NBA All-Star Game.
The former No. 1 pick of the Philadelphia 76ers out of LSU was seen as one of the better young players in the Association at that time. He was teaming up with fellow All-Star Joel Embiid to form a potential championship duo.
Fast forward two years, and Simmons is in the midst of a fall from grace that we haven’t seen from a professional sports player in North America since Johnny Manziel. That’s not hyperbole.
You likely already know the backstory here. Simmons sat out the start of the 2021-22 season with Philadelphia due to mental health issues and a rift with the organization. This came after a terrible performance to conclude the 2020-21 campaign.
Within the matter of months, Simmons was shipped off to the Brooklyn Nets in the James Harden blockbuster roughly a calendar year ago. It was the end of an up-and-down tenure for Simmons in the City of Brotherly Love.
From there, Simmons didn’t do himself any favors. He failed to play a single game with Brooklyn after a trade from the 76ers due to a back injury. For some within the Nets’ organization, this didn’t smell right.
Making his return to action this season, the 26-year-old Australia native simply has not been the same player. It led to Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn having to answer questions about Simmons’ playing time following a recent loss to the New York Knicks. Said comments were just sad.
“It’s going to be some work that we have to do. Because you just take a look at what the lineups could potentially look like. You put another big next to Ben, then you got to figure out what the spacing is around him.
Then if you put another playmaker next to him, then you got to figure out what Ben looks like without the basketball. Then if you go small with Ben, then you have to figure out can you rebound enough with him?”
Jacque Vaughn on Ben Simmons
That’s just a whole lot of ouch right there. There’s no real spacing around Simmons because he can’t shoot. If you put a playmaker next to him, questions will come up about his ability to move without the ball. If you make him a big at the four or five, rebounding becomes an issue.
Vaughn’s comments come roughly a week after Brooklyn dealt away star players Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. If the veteran can’t get minutes without those two on the roster, it speaks to larger-scale problems.
Related: Winners and losers from the NBA trade deadline
The sad fall of Ben Simmons
How does a player go from being seen as one of the brightest stars in the game to what we’re seeing today? There’s a whole lot to focus on (more than we will in this article). But the overriding belief is that Simmons just isn’t cut out for stardom in the Association.
In reality, his struggles have coincided with a public microscope being placed on the two-time All-Star.
“It finds me all the time. And it doesn’t f***ing stop. Sometimes I’m even sick of it, but then I’m like, ‘OK, I’m Ben Simmons, you know? It comes with being Ben Simmons right now.’”
Ben Simmons after receiving criticism earlier in the season
That’s not the way to respond to playing in the nation’s largest media market for an organization that thought it had the latest iteration of an NBA super team. His performance on the court also speaks to this stage being too bright.
- Ben Simmons stats (past 5 games): 3.2 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 4.4 APG, 47% shooting
The dude literally went from averaging 16.7 points, 8.4 rebounds and 7.8 assists from 2018-2020 to being a bottom of the bench type of player.
The backdrop here is a five-year, $177.2 million contract that makes Simmons look like even more of an albatross.
Hilariously enough, Brooklyn gauged Simmons’ market ahead of last week’s NBA trade deadline and will once again look to move him his summer. Said market is going to be about as sad as Simmons’ fall from grace over the past two years. And in reality, no one should be happy about that.