Ben Simmons: Brooklyn Nets not expecting guard to return this season

The Brooklyn Nets are not expecting guard Ben Simmons to play again this season, although no final decision will be made until the three-time All-Star meets with a back specialist, coach Jacque Vaughn has revealed.

Simmons is currently sidelined with what the Nets say is a nerve impingement - the condition where tissue or bone compresses nerve fibres - in his back.

Saturday's game at Miami marked the 16th in a row that Simmons has missed, and his 32nd absence in 74 Nets games this season.

"For me as a coach, there's some things that I can control, some things that I can't control," Vaughn said. "What I can't control is the impingement".

"What I can control is getting this group ready to play. And then in all honesty, the realism that he's probably not going to join us for the rest of the year ... certainty will come once he continues to be looked at by specialists."

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The Nets announced on Friday that Simmons will continue being sidelined "while we determine the best long-term course of treatment". What that means is still not fully clear, and the Nets will not know until Simmons is further examined.

"We're going to lean into the specialist and the consultation and I think those answers will come from the specialists," Vaughn said.

Simmons is a three-time All-Star who did not play at all last season, first citing mental health issues and then a back injury. He started last season with Philadelphia, then was sent to Brooklyn in the trade that brought James Harden to the 76ers.

He has missed games this season for a variety of reasons, including left knee soreness, a left calf strain and the back problem.

Simmons' numbers this season are, by far, the worst of his career. He is averaging only 6.9 points - he has never been below 14.3 points per game in any of the other four seasons in which he played - and is shooting 44 per cent from the foul line.

He last played on February 15, around the time he told reporters he was uncertain about his role with the team and prompting Vaughn to say in response that the team also were not sure how they would be able to use Simmons with new line-ups following the trades of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.