“Once it becomes a habit, this team’s going to be pretty scary in the open court.”

He was the No. 6 selection in the 2021 NBA draft by the Thunder.

Meanwhile, fellow Australian Simmons says he is “ready to go” following his second back surgery in three years. It’s been six months since the point guard-forward had surgery, Simmons declaring “everything’s going well” and that there have been no setbacks.

“It feels like a new start, a fresh start, and then obviously, for me personally, just being healthy and being able to compete and play, you know, it does feel like that,” he said.

Simmons, 28, enters an intriguing stage of his career. His five-year, $177 million contract expires at the end of this season and has averaged only 6.7 points per game, six assists and 6.7 rebounds a game since he was traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Nets.

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He needs to show new coach Jordi Fernandez – and the wider NBA – that he can be a strong contributor, even if his days as an NBA All-Star may be over.

“The priority is just to play and be healthy. So all the other stuff that’s being said, that’s just words from people that, obviously, have something to say about something they don’t know have information [on],” Simmons, set to make $40 million this season, said.

Simmons, who refused to fully participate or play in regular-season games in his final year with the 76ers, citing his mental health, was traded to the Nets in exchange for James Harden and has become a much-maligned figure in the NBA.

The three-time All-Star and two-time all-defensive first team selection has played just 57 games with the Nets since February 2022, and could be traded this season, if the rebuilding Nets are keen to improve their hopes of securing the No.1 draft pick.

Reflecting on his career, Simmons said, as a player, he was “not that bad” and maybe even “pretty good.”

“I’m not that bad at basketball,” Simmons replied after being informed he was 14th all-time triple-doubles.

“That’s not too bad, but I think got some more in me.”

However, as New York-based reporters noted, Simmons’s last triple-double was in June 2021, when he was with the 76ers.

Meanwhile, Matisse Thybulle has opened up about his surprise omission from the Boomers’ Paris Olympics campaign, declaring it was a long 15-hour flight home to the US after he was overlooked by coach Brian Goorjian.

“What do you learn from it? I guess that nothing is guaranteed. I got into there on the assumption I would be in the team, and I wasn’t, just having to deal with the sense of entitlement I might have had going in there,” Thybulle, a defensive ace for the Portland Trail Blazers, said.

“That’s a deeper one than just a simple answer, plenty of stuff to think about and process.”

Boomers great Patty Mills, speaking in Utah where he has joined the Jazz, said it was highly unlikely he would become a coach upon retirement.

Mills, a 15-year NBA veteran, had last season with Atlanta and Miami, before discussions about linking with the Jazz intensified through the Olympics. Mills will largely act as a mentor for the Jazz’s emerging young talent, having inked a one-year, $5 million deal that is fully guaranteed through the end of the 2024-25 season.

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