NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons has played just six games this season after a nerve impingement in his lower left back in the beginning of November took him off the court for a significant amount of time. However, the good news is that he should be back for the Nets soon.
“Yeah, all signs point towards the likelihood of him playing next week,” Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said of Simmons prior to Saturday’s matchup against the Houston Rockets. Simmons practiced earlier in the day on Saturday with the Long Island Nets and per Vaughn, everything went well during that session.
Vaughn mentioned that Simmons has a “high likelihood” of returning to the court for Monday’s home game against the Utah Jazz.
In other news, as Nets Wire covered previously, Cam Johnson will miss Saturday’s game against the Rockets due to personal reasons. Per Vaughn, it seems that whatever Johnson is going through, he will come back to the team shortly.
As a result, Cam Thomas will start in Johnson’s place. Thomas, who is second on the team in scoring with a 20.5 points per game average, will draw his 21st start of the season. When he has started, Thomas is averaging 22.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 43.9% from the field and 36.4% from three-point range.
Vaughn said that backup center Day’Ron Sharpe, who is averaging 7.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in 16.0 minutes primarily off the bench, is still “far behind” from practicing at this moment. He’s been doing individual work while allowing his hyperextended left knee to heal.
In more injury news, Dariq Whitehead, the 22nd overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, will be getting season-ending surgery to address the stress reaction in his left shin, according to Vaughn. Vaughn said that it’s still too early to see if Whitehead will be able to participate in the summer league, but that the team will have an update after his surgery on Monday.
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