GT: Nets @ Miami Heat 11/1 - 7:30PM EST

[ChuckS]

I should stay out of this and let the yin and yang of Marvin and Lou balance out this Ben Simmons thing we have going. And I certainly will not argue the fact that he should continue to work on his free throw shooting which would probably eliminate most of the conflict. I won't even complain if some think he should be scoring more at his salary. But in the olden days of radio there was a famous newscaster, Paul Harvey, who was famous for closing his broadcasts by saying "Now the rest of the story". So let me try not to equate his worth to what he is not doing.

I think his return, even in the early stages of his recovery, has been an important factor in our fun play so far this season. It looks like even without Herro we have found scorers. IMO he is the biggest difference in upgrading our rebounding, to the point where, without having added another big, has us, shockingly, even out rebounding the opposition thus far. It is alleged he had a lousy game against Miami, but how many point guards can give you 11 rebounds in a game?. And Mikal was our closer, but no one noticed that in the final minute and a half Ben got all three critical rebounds to make that happen. He almost single handedly neutralized Bam's 14 for the game. He has averaged 10.5 a game to this point, very important without Nic.

It has been suggested that his shooting and play making have been too much affected by his fear of being fouled. I want to see him back at his 15 point per game average, but personally do not care why he missed an alley oop or any shot as long as he is making 56% of them. And I question whether his offense has really been limited to coming up court and handing the ball off when his 7.5 assists per game (the same as his career average) is three higher than anyone else on the team.

In summary, I'm glad he is back, and hope he stays healthy.