On March 15, Beijing time, Simmons has been transferring to the Nets for more than a month since the trade deadline, and he still does not have a clear return timetable, and the comeback time is far away. He still seems to need time to adjust to training and to deal with his back injuries. New York Times reporter Brian Lewis consulted two orthopedic medical experts who were not optimistic about Simmons' return, believing that he would not be able to make a comeback before the regular season.
Rahul Shah, a board-certified orthopedic spine and neck surgeon who is also the Magic's team doctor, has watched Simmons play on the sidelines several times during his time in Philadelphia. He believes that Simmons will not return this season, basically belonging to the stage of season reimbursement. He believes Simmons will need to complete surgery in the offseason to heal his back injury.
Shah said simmons had to go through confrontation training like 1V1 and 5V5 before he returned to the game. Before being allowed to enter the training ground, Simmons needs to complete basic tests such as sprinting and sprinting, combined with previous news reports, Simmons has not trained with the team recently, and has not even been allowed by the team to run and sprint, teammate Mills in yesterday's pre-game interview verified that he did not train with the team. This is a big reason why Shah is pessimistic about Simmons.
Simmons' back injury is not new, and he suffered a lower back injury during the off-season of the 19-20 season. According to Philadelphia's head coach at the time, Simmons was pressed to the spine nerves, and he would feel pain and vomit. Head coach Nash said Simmons still needs time to continue to recover, and he does have problems with his back and can only complete light training in the near future.
Armin Tehrany, MD, another board-certified physician, was slightly more optimistic about Simmons' injury. He believes Simmons' back is the main reason why he has never been able to return to the field, which has caused his comeback to slow down. But he can still see the possibility of Simmons returning this season. Tehrany believes Simmons is most likely to be in the playoffs and playoffs.
Simmons' uncertain return is a heavy blow to the Nets, without whom the team will have a difficult time building a defensive system. The Nets currently rank 8th in the East with a 35-33 record, four wins behind the 6th-place Cavaliers. With the remaining 14 regular season games, it's very difficult for the Nets to overtake the Cavaliers. If they want to make it to the playoffs, it seems impossible to avoid the possibility of competing for tickets through the playoffs.
Because Irving consistently refused to be vaccinated, he was still unable to play in the home game for the Nets. Yesterday, Irving entered the Nets' home court for the first time, but just appeared in the locker room, the team was fined $50,000 by the league, which is also the league's attitude to ban Irving from playing at home without vaccination. Of the remaining 14 regular season games, the Nets have only five away games left, and for Irving there are only five games left in the regular season.
The absence of Irving and Simmons will undoubtedly put pressure on Durant. In yesterday's game against the Knicks, Durant single-core led the team to slash 53 points, set a new season scoring record, and fight with opponents until the last minute to decide the winner. This shows how isolated Durant is on the team.
If the situation is now, the Nets are very likely to meet the Raptors in the first round of the playoffs. Toronto local regulations will restrict Irving from playing. That means if the Nets make it to the playoffs as 7th or 8th, Irving won't be able to play, regardless of whether they have home-court advantage or not. Unless the Nets will play in the playoffs as 9th or 10th in the East, they will be on the edge of a single-elimination format. Either way, it's very bad for the Nets, and the team needs to be prepared for Durant to single-handedly lead the team to play the playoffs.
Simmons' persistent injury absences and Irving's inability to play have put a lot of pressure on the Nets. At present, Harden's deal with Simmons is better than Philadelphia. The future of the Nets is full of unknowns.
(Text/Yuwen Basketball)