Ben Simmons Is Excited About The Nets Because They Don’t Have ‘Guys With Too Many Individual Goals’

The Brooklyn Nets attempt at building a superteam did not work as intended, as they produced a ton of headlines and plenty of controversy, but failed to produce the results on the court expected of a team with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and James Harden. After a nearly yearlong deconstruction of that group was finally completed with the trades of Irving and Durant last trade deadline, the Nets enter this year’s training camp looking to reset the focus.

Mikal Bridges is their new leading man, with Cam Johnson, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Nic Claxton alongside, but the most interesting piece just might be Ben Simmons. The former All-Star played half of last season to middling results and hopes to provide even more of a lift this year. If Simmons recaptures some of the magic from early in his career, it’d be a huge boost for a team that could very much use a pass-first point guard to help orchestrate the offense, but most NBA fans are taking a skeptical approach to just how big of an impact he will have, no matter how many offseason workout cutups hit social media.

Simmons recently sat down for an interview with FOX 5 New York, and explained why he’s optimistic heading into this season, particularly about playing for a team that’s a bit more in tune with his sensibilities. Simmons raised some eyebrows by noting he thinks this team’s sole focus will be on winning, without the focus on “individual goals.”

It’s not hard to see that as a bit of a jab at the Nets departed stars (or, at least, one of them), thinly veiled as a compliment to the mentality of this current group. It’s also probably not an incorrect assessment of part of what doomed the Nets efforts at a superteam, as that group simply never coalesced in the way the best star combinations do. There will no longer be a “your turn, my turn” situation on offense for Brooklyn, but the problem is, with Irving and Durant, that was a pretty good offensive strategy and the Nets will have to prove a more egalitarian approach without the high-end scoring talent can make up for their departures.