Nets' Ben Simmons eager to reclaim spot among NBA's elite talents

Ben Simmons could not hide his smirk.

Nor did he try to.

The Nets’ starting point guard had been asked whether he felt he had something to prove to the NBA after two injury and controversy-plagued seasons. 

“I feel like you know the answer to that,” Simmons said during practice Tuesday at the HSS Training Center in Sunset Park.  

For both Simmons and the Nets, their first opportunity to begin to edit the narrative surrounding the player and team comes Wednesday night at Barclays Center in the season opener against Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Ready to go,” Simmons said. “Ready to go. I’m excited. I’m looking forward to it.” 

It's a chance for Simmons to reintroduce the NBA to his unique skill set and reclaim his position amongst the league’s elite talents. 

“Get back to where I was,” said Simmons, ticking off his goals for the season. “Compete at the highest level and make an impact in the game. Me, I want to win. That’s all I want to do. That’s the No. 1 priority, winning.”

Whether that particular objective becomes reality will be determined by just how well and how quickly a not-entirely-familiar-with-each-other team develops chemistry and an identity. 

And to hear Spencer Dinwiddie talk, their identity has to be defense-first, a marked deviation from the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving era. 

“With eight out of our top 10 being all-defensive team caliber guys, I think we have to hang our hat on that,” Dinwiddie said. “And then we [have] to try to match Ben’s talent level and pace. Hopefully Mikal [Bridges] is able to continue his scoring prowess; that 26, 27 [points] a game peak efficiency. Hopefully Cam Johnson is able to make threes at the 45 percent-type clip we’re accustomed to seeing. Hopefully Cam Thomas establishes himself as the three-time 40-point a game type guy. If that happens, we’ll have enough scoring punch along with our defense to make something happen.”

All reasonable points. But it bears noting that last season the Nets struggled defensively post-trade deadline and in the first-round series loss to Philadelphia, although coach Jacques Vaughn was teaching concepts to a squad that was completely remade on the fly following the blockbuster deals that sent Durant to Phoenix and Irving to Dallas. 

So maybe the post-deadline iteration’s defensive play could be graded on a curve. However, in the just-concluded preseason, the Nets ranked 28th defensively.   

Still, Vaughn thinks that having a full training camp to implement his methods will pay off.

“The good thing about us this year is we were able to do it all together from the start,” Vaughn said. “I'm able to explain the 'why' with this group. I think it is extremely important [to explain] why we decide to play defense this way, why our offense looks the way that it does.” 

Net-cetera

Vaughn said Dennis Smith Jr. (sprained left ankle) participated in practice, and although he had not heard a final diagnosis from the medical staff whether the reserve point guard could play in the season opener, “it's probably leaning toward that direction that he will be available tomorrow, and maybe that's me being extremely hopeful.”

The 25-year-old suffered the injury during the Nets’ 135-103 preseason win over Maccabi Ra’anana on Oct. 12.