Ben Simmons smiled and giggled at how he’d been behaving all day. It was his first time attending a major basketball game in 16 months, and he seemed effervescent.
“I think I was just too excited to be honest,” he said at the Barclays Center on Wednesday night. “It was just great to be out there.”
The trip didn’t go particularly well. Simmons scored just 4 points and fouled, perhaps due to his enthusiasm, and his team lost 130-108 to the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA season opener for both teams. Simmons was a bit rusty after missing all of last season with mental and physical health issues. He started in Philadelphia last season before being traded to the Nets for James Harden in February. But just the fact that Simmons was in the game on Wednesday was significant.
His availability is a symbol of where the nets are at the start of this season. Kevin Durant is still on the team. Kyrie Irving is said to be available throughout the season. And now Simmons is healthy. This season could provide a final word on what the Durant-Irving nets can be and how they respond to the pressure to have the parts in place to be genuine contenders.
“Now you can see who we really are,” said Nets forward Markieff Morris. “Would you rather be a team where you have championship ambitions and a lot of pressure to win? Or would you rather be a team trying to be number 1? In this league you have to choose your poison. Playing under pressure is a good thing.”
It’s been three years since Durant and Irving decided to join the Nets at free hand. Their arrival required patience, initially as Durant was working on an Achilles tendon injury that would cause him to miss the entire 2019-20 season. This season was also disrupted by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic; As most teams entered a blistering environment in Florida this summer to finish the season, Irving didn’t join the Nets as he recovered from an injury.
The 2020-21 season was cut by 10 games because of the pandemic, but the Nets finished with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. James Harden came to them through a trade from Houston in January 2021. They lost the conference semifinals in seven games to eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks.
Then everything unraveled.
Irving decided he would not be vaccinated against the coronavirus, meaning he could not play home games due to a local mandate. The Nets said they didn’t want a part-time player until they did. They later did not agree on a maximum contract extension with Irving when they could have, and Irving confirmed his player option to remain in Brooklyn for the final year of his contract.
Frustrated with Irving, Harden asked for and got a trade, swapping places with Simmons, and then more patience was required. Simmons, who had felt mentally unfit to play until the trade, missed the rest of the season with a back injury that required surgery. He spent the off-season healing and said he felt perfectly healthy as training camp began.
The final drama of the summer for the Nets came when Durant requested a trade in June. The Nets never found the right offer, if such a thing even existed for a player of his caliber. Reports surfaced that Durant wanted general manager Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash fired. Durant has not confirmed those reports, and Nash referred to the entire episode as if it were a family disagreement.
The silver lining of an offseason that threatened the team’s stability was that the Nets returned with two of the best players in the game and a third more talented than most in the league.
They just have to prove that they can actually do it.
Wednesday’s game offered an unfavorable start to that quest. The Nets trailed the Pelicans by as much as 26 points and were outplayed 36-4 on second chance points, a symptom of inconsistent effort.
“The same games that demoralize fans at home demoralize us as players,” Irving said.
Pelicans forward Zion Williamson returned as did Simmons after missing all of last season, in his case with a foot injury. Looking less rusty than Simmons, he scored 25 points and New Orleans capitalized on his play.
“I think they beat us in every category tonight,” Nash said. “Of course we started the game a bit hectic, started the year a bit at a loss. Sometimes that’s normal. excitement on the first night. New group. It was a bit clunky at times.”
Durant led all scorers with 32 points and made 11 of 21 shots, with 4 blocks, 1 steal, 2 assists and 3 rebounds.
If one were to overreact to an opening night result, one could say that these Nets are in deep trouble. But the way they played on Wednesday didn’t match their performance in preseason games, perhaps suggesting they can play much better.
There were also positive moments in the game on Wednesday. At one game, Irving shot in front of Larry Nance Jr. to steal the ball and throw it to Simmons for a dunk.
But competing in the East this season will not be an easy task. Milwaukee, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, is still as impressive as it was two years ago when it won the NBA championship. The Boston Celtics appear determined to amend last year’s Finals loss to Golden State. The Philadelphia 76ers, led by Joel Embiid and Harden, will also be fighting for conference dominance.
In the dwindling seconds of Wednesday’s game, Durant sat at the back of a seat on the bench, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled tight over his head. Occasionally he would turn to Simmons, who was sitting next to him, and say something as they watched the Pelicans complete their 22-point win.
“We have 81 more of these,” Durant later said. He added: “It’s about just hitting back, coming to work tomorrow and finding out.”