Ben Simmons Out For Rest Of Season, Owed $35m Next Year

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The career of Brooklyn Nets forward Ben Simmons took another odd turn on Tuesday, when it was reported by Shams Charania that he would miss the remainder of the season as he begins a program rehabbing his back.

Things haven’t been the same for Simmons since his his last All-Star season as a member of the 76ers. He averaged 14/7/7 that year while playing in 58 games, but was exposed in the playoffs for his lack of offensive intensity and output.

Ben Simmons Out For Season, Could Be Done In Brooklyn

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He missed the entirety of the 2021-22 season between a holdout and nagging back injury, and fell out of favor completely in Philadelphia.

But Simmons had a chance for a career resurgence, when he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets last season despite still being injured. He was able to make his return this year as the Nets looked to compete for the Eastern Conference title, but things completely broke down as the team traded away its superstars.

Simmons played in a small handful of games after the trades of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, averaging 2.7 points in 16.5 minutes before being removed from the lineup due to the back injury.

Ben Simmons will now miss the remainder of the season, and may have even played his last game in Brooklyn. It is clear in his performance on the court that he is no longer the player that he once was on either end of the court, and his salary certainly does not match the output.

Simmons Still Owed Big Money Over Next Two Years

Simmons is owed $78 million over the next two seasons, and will hit free agency in 2025.

The downfall of the Nets wasn’t Simmons’ fault, but he certainly didn’t do anything to help rectify the situation. When James Harden became disgruntled during the first year of the Big 3 in Brooklyn, the team looked to unload him for the highest possible value. It was thought that Simmons still held plenty of that, even though it was known that he would miss the remainder of the 2022 season.

But he never meshed with Irving and Durant the way that the team would have hoped, and what could have been a powerhouse in the Eastern Conference has been left essentially in despair. Ben Simmons could be the next victim of the house cleaning taking place in Brooklyn.


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