Ben Simmons has been sidelined since the All-Star break and Nets coach Jacque Vaughn isn’t sure if he’ll play again this season, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Simmons missed his 10th straight game and his 26th of the season on Sunday, and the team doesn’t have a prognosis for when he might return.
“He’s still managing his back and knee soreness,” Vaughn told reporters before the game in Denver. “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.”
During the break, Simmons had fluid in his left knee drained and took a platelet-rich plasma injection. However, when the team put his knee on a strengthening program, Simmons’ back pain started to flare up. He missed all of last season with a herniated disc in his back and had a microdiscectomy in May.
Simmons is averaging career lows this season at 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game, along with a 43.9% success rate on free throws. He’s owed more than $78M over the next two seasons.
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