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At long last, Ben Simmons of the Brooklyn Nets is getting back to normal. On Thursday, SNY's Ian Begley reported that Simmons is 100% healthy after missing the last two months of the regular season because of a back injury. Simmons hasn't had any setbacks in the offseason and, now that he's no longer rehabilitating the injury, he is doing skill work and conditioning to gear up for training camp, SNY reported, citing league sources. 

Also on Thursday: In an interview with Sirius XM NBA Radio, Simmons' agent, Bernie Lee, said, "The expectation is that he'll be able to start the season Day 1 of training camp and definitely the regular season without any limitations in any way."

Lee called Simmons a "basketball savant," adding that he will return to competing "at a really high level here for all of us to see." Asked about Simmons' health, Lee said, "He's been great. There's been a protocol that was established for him this summer that has benchmarks and measurements just to make sure everything's staying on track, and I would tell you that he's exceeded everything."

On "NBA Today" on Wednesday, ESPN's Marc Spears cited a source close to Simmons saying that he is on the right track and close to being ready for the regular season. 

The full quote, which Spears read aloud:

I would say he's in the final stage of prep for the season and he has passed every benchmark and is as healthy as he has ever been since his last year in Philly. Brooklyn has been incredibly supportive and the plan is for him to be the Nets' point guard and primary ballhandler this coming season. The expectation is he will fully resume his career at the level he has [played at] prior to leaving Philadelphia.

There is suddenly all sorts of Simmons optimism in the air. The panel on "NBA Today" used Mikal Bridges' recent appearance on Paul George's podcast, in which he expressed support for Simmons and confidence in his ability to return to form, as a jumping-off point for its discussion.

Back in April, after the Nets announced that he would miss the rest of the 2022-23 season because of a nerve impingement in his back, Lee told the New York Post's Brian Lewis that he "will be healthy to start the next season, for sure," adding that his difficulties in Brooklyn were "part of the recovery from his previous procedure." (Simmons had back surgery in May 2022, a microdiscectomy to address a herniated disk.) On July 9 in Las Vegas during summer league, Nets general manager Sean Marks told reporters that Simmons had not played 3-on-3 or 5-on-5 yet but was in "great physical shape" and raring to go. Based on ESPN and SNY's reporting, Simmons has made significant progress in the last few weeks.

Simmons will not, however, play for Australia in the 2023 FIBA World Cup in August. ("This particular summer, he just ran out of time," Marks told reporters in Vegas. "It just wasn't the right thing to do.") Ideally, this will increase his chances of staying on the court throughout the 2023-24 season. After trading Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in February, Brooklyn has had a relatively quiet summer, but a healthy, confident Simmons would function as an enormous addition.