MILWAUKEE — Ben Simmons and D’Angelo Russell did not share the court docket within the Nets’ win Thursday evening in Milwaukee, however in some unspecified time in the future, they each will.
The Nets hope it will likely be extra complementary than aggressive.
In spite of everything, each playmakers have already proven that they cannot solely coexist, however thrive.
They performed collectively at Montverde Academy for 2 years, going 45-2 with a few nationwide championships.
There are literally 4 Montverde merchandise on Brooklyn’s roster.
And Kevin Boyle — who coached the whole quartet — spoke with The Put up in Orlando about his Nets contingent, together with Russell and Simmons chasing their outdated kind.
“Yeah, it’s wonderful that it occurred like this and that there are such a lot of guys from our faculty on the identical crew,” Boyle informed the Put up. “So, I hope it really works out nicely.” We’ll see. To succeed in that objective, to achieve the NBA, is clearly very tough, and to have 4 guys (it is superior). Clearly, a few of them have had their ups and downs. At one time, Ben was an All-Star. At one time, D’Angelo was an All-Star.
Boyle coached Kyrie Irving at St. Patrick’s in Elizabeth, NJ, appeared in eight of the final 11 highschool nationwide championships and coached the final 10 Naismith Nationwide Gamers of the 12 months.
He might take 4 former gamers within the first spherical of the NBA draft in June, led by Cooper Flagg.
And whereas the Nets would like to land the latter, they’ve Montverde merchandise Day’Ron Sharpe and Dariq Whitehead.
However proper now, it is Russell who — after being relegated primarily to the reserve function for the primary time in his profession with the Lakers — has an opportunity to begin in Brooklyn.
And Boyle informed the Put up it wasn’t his kind that had slipped, simply his alternative.
“D’Angelo has all the time been extraordinarily gifted offensively from a scoring, ball distribution and unselfishness standpoint,” Boyle informed the Put up. “Till this yr, his numbers have been extremely constant. No matter he scored or shot percentage-wise, it was such as you have been in a Ponzi scheme; you earn 13 p.c yearly. His numbers have been all the time the identical. That is who he was. It was very efficient.
“This yr, clearly, the enjoying time and the function went down, after which the stats went down as nicely. However relying on when he is gotten comparable enjoying time, his numbers have nearly all the time been comparable. Should you return by the years you’ll be amazed…all the pieces seems to be what it’s on a authentic pattern.
That was confirmed when Jordi Fernandez put the ball in Russell’s arms in his (second) Nets debut, scoring 22 factors and eight assists on Wednesday in Toronto.
Russell and Simmons even had a +7 differential throughout their seven minutes collectively.
The latter didn’t play Thursday in Milwaukee, not being licensed to play consecutive matches.
Boyle puzzled if he would ever see outdated Simmons once more and if not, why not.
“Everyone knows his story and it leaves lots of people confused,” Boyle mentioned. “You are speaking a few man who was one of many 15, 20, 25 finest guys within the league on his approach to, ‘Hey, you are going to have a man who’s going to be a prime 15 participant for a decade.’ And for no matter purpose – whether or not it is accidents or chemistry – (he is) looking for that may you be who you have been in Philadelphia proper now, go 17-8-8 constantly and be actually good. defensively?
“So, I don’t know. I don’t watch sufficient video games (to know) if it may be introduced again to the place it was. Is that this completely a well being scenario? Is it a mixture of well being and psychology to mentally handle something? I do not know. However when D’Angelo was at his peak and Ben was at his peak, you may have two excellent gamers. The query is: can they each get again to that stage and keep it?
