MIAMI — Ben Simmons has been diagnosed with a nerve impingement in his back.
But what does that mean for the Nets and their injured All-Star?
Simmons will remain out of action while the Nets determine the best long-term course of treatment. The team wouldn’t specify if this is a simple flare-up of the nerve Simmons been dealing with, a new disk herniation like the one that required surgery in May 2022, or an entirely different problem altogether.
A specialist who spoke with The Post said a simple flare-up of the old issue is the most likely scenario, but any of the three possibilities would end Simmons’ season.
“He’s really under the care of consulting specialists to see what the next step is going to be going forward,” said Nets coach Jacque Vaughn, who spoke with Simmons on Friday, but shed no light on which scenario his player is facing.
“There’s some things I can control and some things I can’t. What I can’t control is the impingement. What I can control is getting this group ready to play. And then in all honesty the realism that he’s not going to join us for the rest of the year, in all honesty.”
But what about next season? Simmons himself said in November the nerve could take a year-and-a-half to fully recover following the surgery.
“Yeah, it takes time to build, especially with having a nerve injury,” Simmons said then. “It takes 18 months for your nerves to fully heal. People don’t know that. But over time, you know, I get better and better. Just keep pushing.”
Simmons had a microdiscectomy, a surgical procedure to repair the herniated L-4 disk, on May 5, 2022. Dr. Robert Watkins IV performed the surgery at Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital in Los Angeles.
Dr. Neel Anand, orthopedic spine surgeon and co-director of spine trauma at Cedars-Sinai Spine Center in Los Angeles (affiliated with the hospital where Simmons had his procedure) concurred with Simmons’ timeline.
“If he’s saying 18 months, someone told him that. Someone will say that when you know you’ve got a significant nerve problem,” Dr. Anand told The Post from a speaking engagement in Dublin. “He had a microdiscectomy. … You have an operation to remove a herniated disk that’s pressing on a nerve.
“The surgery only takes the disk out and takes the pressure away from the nerve. It doesn’t make the nerve normal. … So the nerve is damaged, injured or whatever. The nerve has to recover on its own. So that someone told him that 18 months means he had a significant nerve problem. And yes, it would be right to say it might take 18 months for it to get better. Only time will say.”
Simmons is averaging career-lows of 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists this season.
He has had his knee drained, took platelet-rich plasma injections before the All-Star break and hasn’t played since Feb. 15.
Even before that, Simmons didn’t have the explosion he exhibited while making three All-Star teams with the 76ers.
The microdiscectomy may have fixed the herniated disk, but it will still take time for the damage to undo itself.
How long is still up in the air, but that 18-month estimate would put Simmons on line for full recovery by November.
“Yeah. All that makes sense. Him saying that, he clearly had significant pressure on the nerve and significant nerve impingement. Clearly someone told him that,” Dr. Anand told The Post.
“It means there was significant pressure on the nerve and significant nerve impingement. It indicates that he had real nerve symptoms and real pressure … it indicates he definitely had a pretty significant pathology.”
Vaughn was unsure whether Simmons, who will make $80.2 million the next two seasons, will need further surgery.
“That herniation was removed and that pressure was removed off the nerve, but the nerve still needs to recover, and that can take a long time,” Dr. Anand told The Post. “That may compress the nerve walls, so at this point he has a flare-up of the original nerve, or he has a new disk herniation, or something else.
“That’s very unlikely, that last scenario … extremely rare. The highest probably is a flare-up of the same problem. The nerve is still not completely normal. It’s inflamed and just reacting. That’d be the highest probability. It also is the best for him.”
Seth Curry, who missed the Nets’ 129-100 win over the Heat on Saturday for personal reasons, will be out Sunday at Orlando as well.
Edmond Sumner had to leave the game early (hip), but says he’ll be fine to face the Magic. “We had to ice it to calm it down. I’m pretty confident in myself. Unless I can’t walk in the morning, Ed Sumner will be playing,” Sumner said. “There’s no question about me unless I literally can’t walk.”