Charles Barkley believes Ben Simmons is lucky he's playing in this era - "We had coaches who will fist fight you if you don't do what they're telling you ... he would have got his ass kicked a lot"
Ben Simmons' poor performances in his first three appearances for the Brooklyn Nets have elicited a strong response from the media at large, and especially from Charles Barkley.
The Brooklyn Nets' conceded 134 points during their loss to the Memphis Grizzlies and went down despite Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant scoring 37 points. The defensive lapses were clearly discernible.
On Bill Simmons' podcast, Charles Barkley talked about Ben Simmons' game and why he wouldn't have fared as well during his time:
"If somebody is paying me thirty-five million dollars a year, At least they can do is to ask me to get better at my job and instead of accepting the challenge, he says, no, I'm taking my bat and ball and go home.
"That to me tells me, he thinks like I'm Ben Simmons, You can't tell me to get better at basketball. Well, yes, we can."
"He's lucky he's playing today. Back in my day, we had coaches who will fist fight you if you don't do what they're telling you to do and he would have got his ass kicked a lot."
Ben Simmons and the Brooklyn Nets have looked a lot worse than expected
A hard pill to swallow for any Brooklyn Nets fan is this brutal stat, which many have arrived at after only three games. Their defensive rating, which is an estimate of how many points a team gives up per 100 possessions, is 124.6, dead last in the league.
There are many, many reasons for this unexpected defensive outing. One of the primary reasons is that their best defender, Ben Simmons, has fouled out in two out of the three games, is yet to register a game with a positive box plus-minus score, and has more personal-fouls (14) than field-goal attempts (13).
This might be because Simmons is, after all, returning to the court after a year and it will take some time for him to shake the rust off. However, with all the criticism that has been directed at him, he hasn't made any discernible changes to his offense, and at the same time is worse defensively.
There is no saying when Simmons might start shooting with confidence, because he just doesn't shoot enough. In three games, he has taken one three-pointer, and 84.7% of his shot attempts have been within 10 feet of the basket.
However, the Nets' defensive lapses can't just be put on Simmons. The lineup with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant has not nearly been potent enough offensively to cover up their defensive lapses.
With the exception of Nic Claxton, the net rating (offensive rating - defensive rating) of all the starters has been negative. Each of their starters gave up more than 1.2 points per possession, and Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are both giving up 1.26 ppp, the worst among starters.
If that wasn't enough, the starting lineup is the worst in the NBA:
The worst lineup in the NBA so far this season, minimum 35 minutes played:
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Nic Claxton, Royce O’Neale
OFF: 95.9
DEF: 126.3
NET: -30.4 (!!!!)
While this is concerning, like the Philadelphia 76ers, this is a new team, relatively newer then even the 76ers, and it will take them time to gel and figure out what works and what doesn't.