Following an examination earlier this month, Ben Simmons has been cleared to take the next step in his return to the game.
And presumably those next steps are on the court.
“Ben has been cleared to maneuver on to the next phase of rehab and is doing very well,” Simmons’ agent Bernie Lee said on Wednesday. “We’re very enthusiastic about his return to form next yr.”
The return to form spans an enormous gap between Simmons’ intermittent and ineffective play for Brooklyn last season and his impressive level as he played three consecutive All-Star games for Philadelphia in 2019-21.
But the Nets have privately admitted that getting Simmons back on the court and maintaining the momentum through at the very least a productive 2023-24 campaign is arguably their most significant off-season task.
The 26-year-old’s comeback has been a continuing stop-and-go with seemingly countless hurdles, but this news – along along with his recent return to court training in Brooklyn and now Miami – means he has overcome some major ones.
Following Simmons’ L-4 disc herniation microdiscectomy on May 5, 2022, several experts told The Post that it could take 18 months for the nerves to completely get better – which is roughly a month until next season – and that there is a probability he might have another surgery .
![Ben Simmons is making progress in rehab](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/newspress-collage-27098748-1684374450687.jpg?1684367054&w=1024&1684367054)
After the Nets shut down Simmons for the season as a consequence of neurosis, that anxiety only increased.
“She checks the fields, encountering various markers along the way; so he doesn’t need surgery at this point,” Nets CEO Sean Marks said last month. “It is a hope for the future that he won’t must have another surgery and we are able to make progress. The timeline is that he will likely be back 100% probably by September 1st. That might be a goal and he’s fully in training camp and able to play.
Simmons has already returned to training at the HSS Training Center, posting many early morning photos on Instagram a couple of weeks ago.
On Wednesday morning, he shared an Instagram story from a University of Miami court together with the caption “Daily” and three faces with steam emotes representing him at work.
Following a Philadelphia detention (citing mental health issues and a nasty back), Simmons was traded to former MVP James Harden in February 2022.
He missed the remainder of this season and appeared in just 42 games last season.
![Ben Simmons has shared a photo of the court in Miami where he is expected to take the next step in his rehabilitation.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-17-at-9.43.16-PM.png?w=449)
After posting profession averages of 14.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and seven.5 assists, he averaged just 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists for the season for Brooklyn, all profession lows.
“The group around Ben noticed an entire change in Ben’s focus and mentality [through] this rehab and the way he attacked him and got involved with all the pieces,” a source aware of the situation told The Post.
Simmons, who expressed an interest in playing for Australia in the FIBA World Cup in late August/early September, was disregarded of the Boomers’ preliminary 18-man squad last week.
“I’m currently rehabilitating my back injury and putting all my effort into it,” Simmons told the Each day Telegraph in Sydney.
This rehabilitation takes a major step forward.