A couple weeks into the 2023-24 NBA season, we’ve seen glimpses of the two-way force Simmons once was, but they’ve been offset by a head-scratching hesitation that could hamstring the Brooklyn Nets
Ben’s not really an issue. We can hope he’ll continue to improve and that he’ll become more aggressive but perhaps injuries will force Ben to miss time or not play up to his full potential.
The issue is the max-contract given to Ben by the 76ers. Every player is going to sign that rookie max extension when offered it but Ben is now terrible value for money for a max contract. A triple single isn’t ever going to be enough. How many games as a Net has Ben scored over 10 points? Not many.
Simmons might play many more years in Brooklyn but I can’t see after summer 2025 that Ben will be on anything close to the money ($40 million per season) that he is earning now.
There will be a max money slot available in summer 2025 to use our cap space and Sean Marks must make best use of it because this is surely how Brooklyn makes its next significant leap in improvement.
Ben’s not really an issue. We can hope he’ll continue to improve and that he’ll become more aggressive but perhaps injuries will force Ben to miss time or not play up to his full potential.
The issue is the max-contract given to Ben by the 76ers. Every player is going to sign that rookie max extension when offered it but Ben is now terrible value for money for a max contract. A triple single isn’t ever going to be enough. How many games as a Net has Ben scored over 10 points? Not many.
Simmons might play many more years in Brooklyn but I can’t see after summer 2025 that Ben will be on anything close to the money ($40 million per season) that he is earning now.
There will be a max money slot available in summer 2025 to use our cap space and Sean Marks must make best use of it because this is surely how Brooklyn makes its next significant leap in improvement.