Report: Kevin Durant "Less Than Enthralled" With Ben Simmons

While we all wait on hearing from Kevin Durant on his feeling about his partner-in-crime Kyrie Irving bailing on him and leaving for Dallas, what we do know now is his feelings on another of his Brooklyn Nets teammates, Ben Simmons. 

Kevin Durant has been ‘less than enthralled’ with Ben Simmons, per @Krisplashed pic.twitter.com/DPn9xUW2p0

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) February 5, 2023

According to Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News:

Sources familiar with Durant’s thinking tell the Daily News the star forward has been less than enthralled with Simmons, who is averaging just 7.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and six assists per game on a max contract in Brooklyn.

Simmons has sat out the last four games with "knee soreness", and has been timid and a shell of his former All-Star self since returning to play this season with the Nets. 

He's missed 15 games overall, and his scoring average is down eight points a game from his career mark in Philadelphia, his rebounds are down by one-and-a-half per game, and his shots per game are just half of what they had been in his former incarnation (5.9 FGA vs. a career mark of better than 11 FGA per game). Simmons continues to play scared, and simply hasn't been the impact player the Nets are paying him to be. 

And now, of course, the next shoe to drop would be Durant reviving his own trade demand that he spent the whole last offseason holding over the Nets' heads. He eventually agreed to recant the request, but what's left of the Nets now, is not what he signed up for. 

The problem for Durant of course, is that what he did sign up for, was to play with Kyrie Irving, who ESPN's Tony Kornheiser called on Friday, "the worst teammate of all-time." 

Photo: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports