Nets' Ben Simmons reveals ambitious goals for new season

In the profile piece, Esquire's Christopher Riley writes that the 27-year-old "might just be better than ever."

Nets fans are just hoping for Simmons to show some kind of resemblance to the player he was during his early years with the Philadelphia 76ers, before imploding in the 2020-21 playoffs.

As the 2016 No. 1 overall pick out of LSU, Simmons appeared destined for greatness five years ago as he headed into his second NBA season. Despite missing the entire 2016-17 campaign due to a foot injury, Simmons immediately showed his unique talent as an unconventional 6-foot-10, left-handed floor general.

He played and started in all but one game for the Sixers during the 2017-18 season, helping lead the team to the playoffs for the first time in six years and making fans believe in "The Process."

Simmons averaged 15.8 points, a career high 8.2 assists and 8.1 rebounds, as well as 1.7 steals, earning Rookie of the Year honors.

He made three straight All-Star teams from 2018-21, led the league in steals per game once, was First-Team All-Defense twice and Third-Team All-NBA once.

Backed by Simmons and star center Joel Embiid, Philadelphia made the playoffs again in 2019, 2020 and 2021, but never made it past the second round. After earning the No. 1 seed during Simmons' final spring with the team, the Sixers were stunned in a seven-game upset by the fifth-seeded Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Simmons had a particularly rough postseason in 2021 and he was used as a scapegoat, leading to his eventual departure from the franchise.

Riley reported that he and Simmons didn't "talk about Philadelphia" during their chat.

"It’s not necessarily off the cards as a topic of conversation but Simmons has already said what he wants to say on the matter. Besides, this is, after all, a fresh start and today’s focus is the future," Riley wrote. "The thing is, even if we don’t discuss it, there are (very vocal) sections of the NBA community who still do. A lot."

The Australian was acquired by the Brooklyn in a blockbuster February 2022 trade that saw former MVP guard James Harden land with the Sixers. Harden now, ironically, wants out of Philadelphia.

After sitting out the entire 2021-22 campaign with his new club, Simmons' first official season with the team in 2022-23 was mostly a disaster. He ended the year playing a career-low 42 games (33 starts) with career-worsts in points (6.9), rebounds (6.3), assists (6.1), steals (1.3) and minutes per contest (26.3).

There have been signs this offseason that the former Tiger may finally be turning a page, however. It's not much, but Simmons had a solid preseason debut last week, posting 10 points, three assists, one rebound and one steal across 14 minutes. The career 59.1% free-throw shooter made two of his four attempts from the charity stripe.

Simmons told Riley that he feels "amazing" heading into the new campaign.

"Now versus how I was playing last season, it’s night and day. Being able to go through a whole session; play, get hit, get up, sprint, dunk, do all these things and then be able to walk perfectly normal and feel like nothing happened is the best thing I’ve been able to experience in the last four or five months. Because all I want to do is hoop and do my job."