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Tim Bontemps, ESPN
NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets forward Ben Simmons is set to return to the court for the first time in nearly three months Monday, as he will play on a minutes restriction and come off the bench against the Utah Jazz at Barclays Center.
“It’ll be good to have him back on the floor,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said before the game. “I think that’s the first thing, for him to be around his teammates and compete in a game setting.”
Simmons hasn’t played since Nov. 6, a span of 38 games, when he suffered a nerve impingement in his lower back against the Milwaukee Bucks. He has recently practiced with Brooklyn’s G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, but has not gone through a full practice with the Nets ahead of Monday’s game.
That’s part of why Vaughn said Simmons will play in “short stints” Monday, though he declined to say exactly how long those stints will be.
“It’s been a few months since we’ve seen him on the floor, and there’ll be some lineups out there that we literally haven’t played together tonight,” Vaughn said. “So that’s the challenge of continuing to learn about your teammates while you’re trying to win a game.”
Simmons averaged 6.5 points, 10.8 rebounds and 6.7 assists for Brooklyn through six games across the opening two weeks of the season, before his latest ailment sidelined him for the better part of three months. After it was initially labeled a hip issue, the Nets eventually determined there was the nerve impingement in his back and progress has been slow for Simmons to return to the court.
It’s just the latest in a series of injury issues Simmons has dealt with over the past three years, after missing the 2021-22 season between a trade request away from the Philadelphia 76ers and a back issue. He played just 42 games last season before being shut down early with a different nerve issue.
“He’ll have short stints out there, so that’ll be hopefully smart for us just to see how he’s feeling,” Vaughn said. “He literally hasn’t practiced with the dudes he’s going to play with tonight. It will literally be day by day, we’ll get feedback from him, see how he feels after the game. He has historically been a guy that’s been able to have time off and get back on the floor and be extremely productive with speed and quickness and hopefully that’s the outcome after tonight, also.”
While Simmons is returning, Vaughn said the Nets will be without Dorian Finney-Smith because of a left ankle sprain for both Monday’s game and Wednesday’s matchup with the Phoenix Suns — the first game back in Brooklyn for Kevin Durant since being traded last season.
Brooklyn also announced Monday that rookie Dariq Whitehead had season-ending surgery to repair a stress reaction in his left shin.