Cavs HC: Ben Simmons Discourse 'Was Unfair'; Nets Wing 'a Hell' of a Player

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff sung Ben Simmons' praises ahead of his team's season-opening matchup with the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night.

"He's a unique talent. All the conversation around him was unfair to an extent. He's a hell of a basketball player. I don't know how many 6'10" guys can do the things that he's capable of. Being able to facilitate a game, play with the pace that he can play at, put pressure on your rim. He makes passes that 95 percent of the league can't even see. So you put all of that together in a guy that takes one-on-one defensive challenges, can guard multiple positions, that's a problem."

Simmons undoubtedly has all of the abilities Bickerstaff listed. What he hasn't had much of in recent years is availability.

He didn't play at all in the 2021-22 season as he sought a trade away from the Philadelphia 76ers, while injuries kept him sidelined for the rest of the season once he was dealt to the Nets.

Injury issues limited him again last season and he played in just 42 games, averaging career worsts in points (6.9 PPG), rebounds (6.3 RPG), assists (6.1 APG), steals (1.3 SPG) and minutes (26.3 MPG).

While Simmons was a three-time All-Star in Philadelphia and earned two first-team All-Defensive nods, he frustrated fans with his reluctance to aggressively attack the rim on offense or shoot the ball from the perimeter at all.

That came to a head after the 2020-21 Eastern Conference semifinals, when Simmons scored just five points in a Game 7 loss against the underdog Atlanta Hawks and took a total of three shots—THREE—in 56 fourth-quarter minutes across that series.

That reluctance on the offensive end, paired with his inability to space the floor, eventually made him a tough fit next to superstar center Joel Embiid. Trading him for James Harden made ample sense for all parties involved, though the Simmons' acquisition has yet to pay any dividends for Brooklyn.

"If you look at his age, he should be getting ready to start peaking now," Spencer Dinwiddie said of Simmons during an interview with HoopsHype's Michael Scotto. "Then it comes down to health, and you look at who he's been historically. We need him to be an All-NBA, All-Defensive Team, All-Star-level guy for us to be good. We can't make any guarantees, but that's what we need to be a good team."

Time will tell if that version of Simmons ever returns.