Nets have had ‘zero’ talks about shutting down Ben Simmons

Nets coach Jacques Vaughn said the team has had “zero” discussions about shutting down Ben Simmons for the rest of the season, refuting a random Twitter “report” that gained some steam.

But does that even mean anything? Simmons hasn’t played in two weeks and hasn’t scored in double figures in over a month. His minutes had been cut before he was sidelined with his nagging sore knee. The Nets are in freefall. If something is likely to naturally happen — in this case, Simmons not playing another game this year — do you need to talk about it?

The Nets have 21 regular season games left. And they are currently running seven games ahead of the 11th-place Bulls, so they should be able to hold onto a play-in spot. So call it 22 games. If you give us an over/under of 10.5 more games Simmons appears in, we’re probably hammering the under.

Let’s see what our Crossing Broad brethren in Philadelphia think:

Ben hasn’t played since February 15th. Basketball, that is. I’m sure he’s played Call of Duty and PUBG in that time frame. Simmo the Savage was averaging 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists in 19 minutes per game during the month of February, so it was a lesser basketball version of the late Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan.

Come on, guys. Move on already.

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James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.