Ben Simmons should continue to come off the bench for the foreseeable future

We’ve been able to avoid headlines and press conference questions because he’s coming back from knee swelling, but this is honestly the best situation for the Nets and Ben. This shouldn’t be taken as a diss at all, but he’s clearly been a shell of his former self as a starter and we can continue to bring him off the bench under the guise of “we’ll stick to what’s working.” This allows Ben to gain confidence while maximizing the rest of the roster.

For the Nets, we avoid playing Claxton and Ben to begin the game, which is a shooting match made in hell and essentially limits both players. We already avoid that lineup like the plague throughout the game, why in the world should we start a game off with one of our worst lineups? Ben gets to go against 2nd units while having shooters around him and no lane overlap with Claxton, so he’ll get opportunities inside like he did last night (dump-offs from players driving and even a clean-up dunk). Let him continue to gain confidence and he can easily still see 30+ minutes off the bench.

Going forward, I think it should be:

PG – Sumner (Kyrie if he loses his 3rd eye)

SG – Joe

SF – Royce

PF – KD

C – Claxton

6, 7, 8, 9 come in together:

6 – Ben for Clax

7 – Seth for Joe

8 – Yuta for KD

9 – Cam or Patty for Sumner depending on if we need shooting or shot creation

Hopefully we get Yuta back in the next few days since the [scans came back negative](https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/nets-yuta-watanabe-avoids-serious-injury/). All in all, we’re about 10, maybe 11 deep if Kyrie ever comes back, and the only glaring issue is a backup big. Dwight said the Nets turned him down because they’re looking for a shooting big man, so we’ll see if Marks is able to find a spacer who can rebound off the bench.

by PurpleReign8