The Nets want Ben Simmons to play well alongside Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson next season.
It might bode well if he could play well against them later this summer.
While Bridges and Johnson will feature for Team USA in August, they will not be the only Nets at the FIBA World Championship.
Patty Mills will headline the Australian national team and is hoping his longtime friend Simmons will get well enough from surgery to slot in with the Boomers as well.
“We still have just a few more weeks to go,” said Mills. “By all agreements and from what I’ve heard, he takes care of his body and is moving into the shape and health I feel everyone wants and desires. So I feel the most vital thing for him is to get to the part where he can be Ben again.”
Mills spoke over the weekend at PS 958 in Sunset Park – just just a few blocks from the HSS Training Center – at the unveiling of a recent mural, Indigenous flowcovering the entire exterior of the constructing.
Mills is simply the third Indigenous Australian to represent the Boomers, captain and leading scorer of the team that won bronze at the 2020 Olympics.
Now Mills wants to steer them in the FIBA World Championship, and it might be an enormous boost for each the Boomers and the Nets if Simmons were fit enough to be his running partner.
![Patty Mills drives past Philadelphia 76ers guard Jaden Springer.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000009420442.jpg?w=1024)
![Brooklyn Nets Ben Simmons and Patty Mills look on in the second half against the Boston Celtics.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000003612721.jpg?w=1024)
“Obviously in the off-season, healthy rehab, healthy training, each in the gym and on the court, I feel that is what he’s ,” Mills said. “From what I’ve heard, he looks good and feels good and we’ll see how we develop from there. But I suppose we’ll just need to wait and see until then.
Simmons was central to the return Brooklyn received under James Harden but missed the entire 2021-22 campaign as a result of mental health issues and a nasty back.
He underwent microdiscectomy surgery for a herniated L-4 disc on May 5, 2022, a procedure experts told The Post would require 18 months of recovery.
Struggling to endure the pain of last season, Simmons was limited to simply 42 games, none after February 15.
Diagnosed with a stroke on March 24, Simmons was locked up in rehab. He has moved on to the next stage of rehab, agent Bernie Lee told The Post, and is practicing on a court in Miami.
Simmons’ recovery will be key to Brooklyn’s upcoming season, especially after the departures of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Bridges will be the focus as will Johnson if the Nets retain a restricted free agent.
“Yeah, you play it day after day and see the way it develops,” said Mills. “Plenty of change over the past two years so take the advice to simply control what you possibly can and prepare for really anything. For me, an excellent distraction, so to talk, with the national team and the World Cup, it’s cool to be in that mindset and prepare. But yeah, we’ll see what happens.”