Mills hopes Simmons ready for World Cup
The Nets want Ben Simmons playing well alongside Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson next season. It would bode well if he can play well against them later this summer.
While Bridges and Johnson will suit up for Team USA in August, they won’t be the only Nets at the FIBA World Cup. Patty Mills will be starring for Australia, and is hopeful his longtime friend Simmons will be recovered enough from surgery to suit up for the Boomers, too.
“We’re still a few weeks away yet,” Mills said. “From all accords and from what I’ve heard, he’s looking after his body and getting to the shape and healthy that I think everyone wants and needs him to be. So I think first and foremost for him is just about getting to that part where he can be Ben again.”
Mills was speaking over the weekend at PS 958 in Sunset Park — just blocks from HSS Training Center — at the unveiling of a new mural, “Indigenous Flow,” covering an entire exterior wall of the building. Mills is just the third Indigenous Australian to represent the Boomers, the captain and leading scorer of the team that won bronze at the 2020 Olympics.
Now Mills aims to lead them in the FIBA World Cup, and it’d be a huge lift for both the Boomers and the Nets if Simmons can get fit enough to be his running mate.
“Obviously a full offseason of healthy rehab, healthy workouts, both in the gym and on the court, I think is what he’s looking at,” said Mills. “From what I’ve heard, he’s looking good and feeling good, and we’ll see how we roll out from there. But I think until then, we just have to wait and see.”
Simmons was the centerpiece of the return Brooklyn got for James Harden, but he missed all of the 2021-22 campaign with mental health issues and a bad back. He had microdiscectomy surgery for a herniated L-4 disk May 5, 2022, a procedure experts told The Post would require 18 months of recovery.
Trying to play through pain this past season, Simmons was limited to just 42 games, none after Feb. 15. Diagnosed with a nerve impingement March 24, Simmons was shut down to rehab. He progressed to the next stage of his rehab, agent Bernie Lee told The Post, and has been working out on-court in Miami.
Simmons getting back to health will be a key to Brooklyn’s coming season, especially with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving gone. Bridges will be a focal point, as will Johnson if the Nets retain the restricted free agent.
“Yeah, you play it day by day and see how it unfolds,” said Mills. “A lot of changes over the last two years, so you take the advice of just being able to control what you can and get yourself ready for really anything. For me, a good distraction, so to speak, with the national team and the World Cup is cool to be in that mindset and get prepared for. But yeah, we’ll see what happens.”