{"id":117722,"date":"2025-01-13T17:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T22:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=117722"},"modified":"2025-01-13T16:22:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T21:22:45","slug":"ben-simmons-takes-shot-at-nets-front-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/13\/ben-simmons-takes-shot-at-nets-front-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Simmons Takes a Shot At the Nets Front Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooklyn Nets guard\/forward Ben Simmons<\/a> had an impressive performance despite a 111-112 overtime loss<\/a> to the Utah Jazz. He finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists. However, Simmons sparked headlines with tanking comments following the game.<\/p>\n

Ben Simmons Takes a Shot At the Nets Front Office<\/h2>\n

The Nets are having a season they would rather forget, with a 13-26 record. Simmons is in the final year of his five-year, $177 million contract. Many view him as a player the Nets will try to buy out before the NBA trade deadline. However, the Nets and Simmons have not had recent conversations about a potential buyout<\/a>. Teams around the NBA may not be looking to trade for Simmons’ contract, knowing he is making $40 million this season.<\/p>\n

Despite missing games due to injuries and setbacks, Simmons has rebranded his career. This season, Simmons has been more of a vocal leader<\/a> on and off the court. Coach Jordi Fernandez has pushed Simmons to attack the rim every time on offense and become a much greater defender.<\/p>\n

Simmons Sparked Headlines Regarding Tanking<\/h3>\n

The conversation in recent weeks around the NBA has focused on whether the Nets are willing to tank. Before the game against Utah, Nets general manager\u00a0Sean Marks<\/a> told New York Post\u2019s Brian Lewis<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building this, and we\u2019re building this for hopefully sustainable success,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we want. We want to get to that\u2026 We\u2019re going to have to be systematic with some of the decisions we make. And they may not always be in line with winning the next game or putting the most talent out there.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, when asked by Lewis about the team’s next direction, Simmons expressed<\/a> his frustration with the team\u2019s rebuilding strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know this is kind of like a rebuild situation, but we\u2019ve got to go in there like we want to win regardless of what the front office is expecting,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Simmons is not the only one frustrated about losing.<\/p>\n

His teammate, Nic Claxton<\/a>, said<\/a> \u201cNo moral victories. I\u2019m pissed off. We should have won but we just gotta keep chopping\u201d and \u201cWe\u2019ve been losing a lot, and everybody\u2019s tired of losing. They sat out all their players and we still lost.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s Next?<\/h3>\n

The Nets are actively trying to free up salary cap space for free agency this summer. They are committed to a brighter future and willing to trade players to rebuild. Trade rumors about forward Cam Johnson<\/a> are growing. Recently, the team traded key players, including Dennis Schroder<\/a> and Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a>.\u00a0Despite Simmons’ comments on tanking, management has not responded and will continue their approach to the season, especially with a loaded 2025 draft. Simmons’ future with the team is uncertain, but a few weeks ago, the team refused to buy out his contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Nets are falling apart. There is no clear indication of what the Nets will look like in the 2025-2026 season. Management must decide whether to focus on the upcoming 2025 draft class or pursue talented players in this year’s free agency. Teams in the Western and Eastern Conferences are looking for players to acquire at the upcoming trade deadline<\/a>, including the buyout market.\u00a0For now, all fans can do is sit back and hope to see some wins. They will have to trust the process and hope management has a real plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brooklyn Nets guard\/forward Ben Simmons had an impressive performance despite a 111-112 overtime loss to the Utah Jazz. He finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists. However, Simmons sparked headlines with tanking comments following the game. Ben Simmons Takes a Shot At the Nets Front Office The Nets are having a season they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5340,"featured_media":117761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,6,62],"tags":[266,1781,252,2272,49161,4581],"class_list":["post-117722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nets","category-nba","tag-ben-simmons","tag-cam-johnson","tag-dennis-schroder","tag-dorian-finney-smith","tag-jordi-fernandez","tag-nic-claxton"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117762,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117722\/revisions\/117762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}