‘Zero’ chance Nets shut down Ben Simmons for the season, says Jacque Vaughn

As the missed games due to knee maintenance begin to pile towards the end of the season, Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn insists there has been no conversation about shutting down embattled forward Ben Simmons for the remainder of the season.

“That’s a zero on that one,” said Vaughn, who has been asked twice about the possibility of resting Simmons for the remainder of the season. “Think I went zero last time, going zero again, no discussion.”

After getting fluid from his left knee drained and receiving a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection during the NBA All-Star break, Simmons missed his third straight game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.

Vaughn said Simmons will not play in Wednesday’s matchup against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. His status for Friday’s subsequent matchup in Boston against the league-best Celtics remains unclear.

This is the third time the Nets’ forward has dealt with left knee issues this season. He sustained a lateral left calf strain that cost him four games in late November, then experienced swelling in the same knee in January.

Both of those instances came when Simmons played in both games of a back-to-back.

Vaughn says Simmons is working on building the strength back into his left knee.

“We want to get to a position where we have no reoccurrence of swelling or anything of that nature,” Vaughn said postgame. “I don’t want to get into markers and what he’s doing on a daily basis. I just kind of want to put it all in the bucket of strengthening. That’s what it is at the end of the day, whether that’s consisting of weight room stuff, whether that is conditioning stuff, whether that is basketball stuff, it’s all built around him trying to strengthen and get back to playing.”

Simmons is averaging about seven points, six rebounds and six assists per game for the Nets this season. He has appeared in 42 of Brooklyn’s 60 games this season.