The Philadelphia 76ers were just in the middle of getting healthy and having everybody back on the floor. This was their chance to build chemistry and have it grow as a team as they get set to chase a championship inside the bubble in Orlando.
Instead, Ben Simmons had an unfortunate shift of his knee cap and he has been diagnosed with a subluxation in his left patella and he will be out indefinitely. This is a huge blow to the Sixers and their championship plans as the team does not really have a timetable for his return.
“Some of the information is fluid. It’s still moving,” said coach Brett Brown. “In relation to saying any type of deadline, timeline, playoff, whatever, I’m not in a position to offer anything. Not because we don’t want to, but this stuff is still being evaluated. What I do know is, we play Orlando tomorrow, we don’t have him, and that’s all I know at the moment.”
There is no denying how important Simmons is to this team. The lack of a jump shot aside, he does everything else at an elite level on the floor and that is where other guys will have to step in and provide something where they can at least match the level of play that he brought.
“I don’t even remember it happening,” added Shake Milton. “I just remember him walking off to the sideline. That’s tough for us. Ben’s an incredible player, an incredible athlete, he’s like a freaking superhuman so hopefully, he’s able to heal super fast and get back on the court because we need him.”
It’s hard for a Sixers team that just had him come back from a serious back injury before the league suspension. He was able to work his way back in time for this restart and now he is out again.
“It’s a little frustrating sometimes, but that’s the way the game goes,” said Josh Richardson. “We’ve just got to have a next man up mentality that we’ve kind of had all year. Guys will pick up the slack and when we get him back, he’ll fit back in seamlessly. He’s an All-Star, he’s not going to be easy to replace, but the rest of our team will do as good of a job as we can.”
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For Brown, he now has to figure out a way to get his team all on the same page and he’s going to have to make sure the areas that Simmons covered. That can keep a coach up all night long due to the fact that there is no true replacement for a player of his stature.
“You take the team that you have and you try to make sure areas are as covered as they can be with the loss of Ben, there are lots of areas that you’re going to have to best fix,” Brown added. “Over the course of last night, as you put on your coaching hat, you’re trying to figure out how to sub it and play it. What’s it mean? There’s a lot of moving parts right now and we’re all coming to grips with the news that we have received.”
Philadelphia takes on the Orlando Magic on Friday night inside the bubble. [lawrence-related id=36282,36272,36257]