After the Brooklyn Nets (6-9) suffered a demoralizing 153-121 defeat at the hands of the upstart Sacramento Kings (7-6) on Tuesday, the crew of “Inside the NBA” talked about the state of the Nets’ offense. The Nets’ Kevin Durant scored 27 points to extend his streak of scoring at least 25 points in every game this season, but no other Net was much of a factor on offense before the game turned into a blowout.
Part of the conversation centered on Nets guard/forward Ben Simmons. He had his best performance of this young season with 11 points and five rebounds and he looked more comfortable on Tuesday than he did at any point during this campaign. TNT’s Charles Barkley spoke on how the Nets should use Simmons moving forward:
“There’s not five better players (on the team). I don’t understand that (Simmons coming off the bench) at all. Why you got him coming off the bench? Well, the thing is, Ben, if they could speed up the pace, instead of playing just one on one basketball, that’s when he’s (Simmons) most effective. But I don’t understand, especially with no Kyrie (Irving), how are they gonna score enough points? There’s only one guy that could score, and that’s KD (Kevin Durant). How are they gonna score enough points to beat a good team? Without Kyrie, that’s almost impossible.”
Simmons has been coming off the bench for the Nets as the backup center ever since Jacque Vaughn became the head coach. Irving has missed seven games under his current team-imposed suspension with no indication of when he’ll return. Brooklyn’s next game is at the Portland Trailblazers (10-4) on Thursday at the Moda Center.
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