JJ Redick believes Ben Simmons is the key to Nets turning it around

Clearly, this is a team that lacks something on the defensive end, and if you’ve watched them this year, you’ve seen Kyrie Irving get targeted time and time again. He has done a fine job of battling. Seth Curry is a small undersized guard, Patty Mills same thing. They brought in Royce O’Neale, as a defender Kevin Durant’s been great, I think, on the defensive end, but whether it’s been the Pelicans game or the game Saturday night against the Pacers, defensive rebounding is a real problem. I don’t know that any coach can fix that. I’ll be honest with you, so to me, the key to their season Mad Dog rests on Ben Simmons getting back to being the player that he was in Philadelphia prior to the Atlanta Hawks series and prior to this back injury. He frankly has not looked right physically or mentally in any game he’s played in this season. He’s currently been out with some back tightness as well and so for me, he’s got to be that guy that gets triple-doubles, that creates pace on the offensive end that gets 10 rebounds a game, that guards the other team’s best player multi positional night to night. That, to me is the key for them to turn around their season because frankly, they’re not going to be a championship contender if they are a bottom 10 defense and last or second to last in the league in defensive rebounding rate.