According to Adrian Wojnarowski at ESPN, the Nets are hoping to get a couple games out of Ben Simmons this season before the playoffs:

From Woj:

Brooklyn Nets star Ben Simmons has remained sidelined with an irritation of the L-4 disc of the lower spine, but there’s hope he can return for a “couple” of regular-season games prior to the Eastern Conference playoffs, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.

There had been an original target for a return Friday vs. the Portland Trail Blazers, sources said, but that became impossible in recent weeks based on Simmons’ inability to go more than a day or two in rehabilitation without pain flaring up in the lower back and resetting his timeline, sources said.

If the Nets are hoping Ben Simmons can make it into a couple games this year, you might as well just sit him for the rest of the season. Ben isn’t the type of player who you can just plug into the offense. It takes some getting used to a guy who can’t shoot more than five feet away from the basket. He hasn’t played competitive basketball since June.

Now, as a Sixers fan I would LOVE to see KD and Kyrie try to figure out how to play with Ben in the playoffs. Add in the fact Kyrie can only play in three or four of those games. Two ball dominant guards trying to figure it out on the fly is a recipe for failure.

KD when Ben Simmons tries to check into Game 3 after the Nets offensive rating plummets:

I wonder how real were these runs and training Ben Simmons was rumored to be doing while away from the Sixers. If Ben was actually organizing games and training like the Ramona Shelburne piece said, wouldn’t Ben and his team have been able to spot the back injury sooner?

He has worked out separately with his own group of trainers, according to sources close to Simmons. He has organized his own runs with local players. He has lifted weights at a local fitness club that’s open to the general public. He has seen his own therapist but hasn’t shared information about his treatment with the team. He’s living in the Moorestown, New Jersey, house he put up for sale months ago.

Everything he has done has been apart from the Sixers. But now, just under two weeks before the Feb. 10 trade deadline, Ben Simmons is working out at the facility again. There is no ulterior motive. When it’s empty, the Sixers’ practice court is probably the safest place for Simmons. Every other location where he has trained eventually gets leaked. And until he is traded, those close to him say he wants no attention. No cell phone cameras. No crowds.

Did Ben Simmons’ camp not disclose his back injury so it wouldn’t impede him being traded? Did the Sixers trainers know about it, but since he wouldn’t cooperate they thought, “Fuck it“? So many conspiracy theories. I love the NBA.