Only days away from the Nets’ season opener on Wednesday against Cleveland, head coach Jacque Vaughn admitted scoring is not a concern he has for Ben Simmons.
“Probably the only guy I mentioned scoring to is [Cam Johnson],” Vaughn said after Monday’s practice. “I talked about him shooting 10 3s. And said something about [Dorian Finney-Smith] shooting eight 3s the other day, just because in the last three years, he’s probably a 40 percent shooter from corners. I won’t mention too much of offense, and all of our guys fit in that same bucket.
“I’m more concerned about how they impact winning, how they impact making their teammates better. Much more, I have those conversations of playing hard, being more detailed in our approach and everything. Offensively, that’s probably the only two dudes I have said something about, like offensive targets or goals and negatives and positives in a game.”
But scoring has notably been an issue attached to Simmons’ name.
In 42 games last season, Simmons averaged just 6.9 points per game — less than half his career average — taking just 5.6 shots per game.
His production became a concern in the 2021 playoffs when he was with the 76ers.
Among Simmons’ issues, he famously passed up an open layup in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Hawks.
Though Simmons scored at least 14.3 points per game in each of his first four seasons in the league, Vaughn wants his point guard to focus on being a facilitator after suffering a back injury that decimated him for two seasons.
“Yeah, for sure, and that’s with not playing with [Cam Johnson], not playing with Dennis [Smith Jr.],” Vaughn said when asked if Simmons is doing what they want in that role. “The ability to create for others is going to be huge for us. I talked about us not being an isolation team, and so we need movement,” Vaughn said.
“We need body movement. We need ball movement. We need pace, and Ben provides that for us. Looking forward to the strengths of this team, taking advantage of that and kind of creating a cohesiveness where we understand how to get each other open and play together.”
The Nets have noted that Simmons’ speed starts the team in transition offense and his energy can spark the team, and if the three-time All-Star can stay healthy, they believe they’re in a good spot.
“It’s really exciting, I mean, all the hard work he went through, injuries last year, then the summer working hard,” Royce O’Neale said. “Just seeing it paying off, him just competing at a high level. It’s great to have him back, making everybody better now.”
Finney-Smith’s documentary “From Portsmouth to Brooklyn” premiered on Sunday on YouTube.
“It feels good,” he said about being able to tell his story. “And I feel like you guys got to know me better. Obviously, I don’t like talking, but they got me to talk a little bit in that. My teammates too, they were also able to find out who I do it for and what I do it for, and why I do it. … I feel like things like that make you closer as a team because you know what people are playing for.”
As for on the court, Finney-Smith — mostly a backup throughout his six-plus seasons with the Mavericks and last season after being dealt to Brooklyn — is trying to find his role on the second unit.
“Just try to be a spark off the bench. If the starters do their job and we do our job off the bench, we’re gonna be a pretty good team because we’re deep,” he said. “We’re at least 10 deep and everybody’s talented so if we just put winning first I think it’s going to clear up anything.”
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