The Nets entered this regular season as the odds-on favorites to win the NBA title. Tuesday morning, Brooklyn woke as the only playoff team swept out of the first round.

The Nets roster that dropped four consecutive games against Boston was far from the juggernaut that general manager Sean Marks assembled entering training camp. Kyrie Irving forfeited his ability to play much of this 2021-22 campaign by choosing not to comply with New York City's vaccine ordinance. Irving's status was one of many factors that influenced James Harden to request a trade from the franchise in February. Nets figures are also quick to point out the critical loss of floor-spacer Joe Harris, who played just 14 games thanks to an ankle injury.

Ben Simmons' absence from this postseason has garnered the most glaring spotlight of all. Before the Celtics series began on Easter Sunday, league sources told B/R the 25-year-old three-time All-Star and Nets personnel were confident he was on track to play as early as Game 3. Then his purported timeline became Game 4. That is until Sunday, when Simmons informed Brooklyn staffers he was experiencing back soreness, one day before Monday's fateful Game 4 defeat.

Simmons, in theory, could have risen Monday morning and determined his back felt good enough to play. There had been various people close to him encouraging him to retake the floor, even under limited minutes, to establish a deeper connection with teammates ahead of next season, sources said. By all accounts his ailing back is not 100 percent healthy, but few NBA players at this stage of the playoffs are free from some form of nagging pain. Members of his representation and other close contacts even advised Simmons to at least sit on Brooklyn's bench in his uniform and team warm-ups rather than the gaudy outfits that became a spectacle.

Instead, the Nets ruled Simmons out of Game 4 altogether, sources said, as a sense of fatigue from the situation and general disappointment seemed to permeate the franchise. After visiting the floor for pregame warm-ups prior to Game 3, Simmons did not partake in any pregame work Monday and was not present on the bench alongside his teammates for Game 4, which one source told B/R was because of his lingering back discomfort. Simmons certainly wouldn't have debuted on the road in front of a hostile Boston crowd for Game 5. Could he have appeared in Game 6? We'll never know.

But for all the ramp-up concern and rightful consideration of back issues that have plagued Simmons for multiple seasons, it's quite clear that the mental aspect of Simmons' return to game action is the biggest hurdle standing between him and an NBA court.

Throughout the tumultuous season, Simmons shifted his explanations for sitting out—the vitriol from Philadelphia's fanbase, Doc Rivers' post-Game 7 comments, wanting to be the centerpiece of his own team, back soreness—but consistently balked when any moment to rejoin the floor arrived.