NEW YORK — Seth Curry is not planning to undergo surgery on his ailing left ankle at the end of this season.
He is, however, planning to give it a month of rest – a month he doesn’t have now in the middle of the Nets’ late push for an NBA championship.
Curry doesn’t remember how he hurt his ankle but said it happened about a month before the blockbuster trade that sent him, Andre Drummond and Ben Simmons to Brooklyn for James Harden and Paul Millsap at the Feb. 10 NBA trade deadline.
He has missed four games with a left ankle injury, including three in a row from March 13-16. He then aggravated that injury after 12 minutes against the Utah Jazz on March 21 and sat the following game in Memphis against the Grizzlies on March 23.
The toughest part of Curry’s ankle injury is that it throws him off his pregame routine.
“It’s tough (to manage) just in the sense that I can’t do as much as I want to do every day, as far as just practice-wise and working on my game and getting extra work in,” he said. “It’s an interesting, tough experience, but I’ll get through it.”
Curry said the injury is painful to play through.
“Yeah, most of the time, yeah, honestly” he conceded. “We’re doing a good job of trying to manage it on off days and getting the proper amount of treatment.”
The Nets, however, will need him to continue to fight through the pain. There are only seven games left in the regular season before the play-in tournament, and Curry, who is shooting 48.5% from downtown and almost 70% on wide-open 3s this season, is the Nets’ best shooter since Joe Harris is out for the season after undergoing a second surgery on his left ankle.
After Curry, the Nets’ shooters become significantly less reliable, which is why the Nets will continue to lean on him — even if they’re leaning on a bad left ankle.
“We definitely have to manage Seth here,” Nets head coach Steve Nash said. “We don’t have the luxury to sit him all the time. If we have the choice, we really need (Seth), so we’ll see,” Nash said of his lead reserve. “We’ve just got to do the best we can and manage his health the rest of the way and hopefully, he can maintain a level of comfort playing through some discomfort.”
Aldridge back
The Nets’ starting center doesn’t know what LaMarcus Aldrdige’s return from injury means for the Nets’ trio of starting-caliber centers.
Aldridge has been out with a right hip impingement since March 8. Drummond has been the starter since his arrival in Brooklyn, but Aldridge and Nic Claxton competed for the backup minutes.
In Aldridge’s absence, Claxton has shined, and Drummond has been a dominant rebounding and rim protecting presence. Now that Aldridge, a former perennial All-Star, is back, it’s unclear where he fits in the rotation. He did not play at all in the Nets’ loss to the Charlotte Hornets despite being listed as active for Sunday’s game.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Drummond said. “The rotations here have been different, so I don’t know how they really want to run the show when it comes to that. I know LA’s ready. I spoke to them today. I guess last game was just (his) first game back.
“He’s a professional at the end of the day. He knows what it takes to stay on the floor, what it takes to be prepared for games, when his number’s called he’s always prepared. So I don’t control what the narrative is on the whole rotation thing. I just play the game.”
Simmons moving
When asked what the rehabbing Ben Simmons looks like in Nets practice, Drummond said: “Good, good. He’s moving around a little bit more. He looks good, he looks happy.”
But what exactly is Simmons doing in practice?
“In terms of what he’s doing, none of us know,” Drummond continued. “He’s the mystery guy. He comes in in sweats every day, and then God knows what he does after that. So hopefully he’s doing this recovery and he’s getting better each and every day. When we get him back, we get him back.”
Drummond said Simmons participates in walk-throughs and is able to pass the ball and move around.
“You guys (have) seen him during the game, he’s doing it,” he said. “That’s as much as he’s done.”
Curry agreed with Drummond that Simmons appears to be in good spirits.
“Seems like it, yeah,” he said. “He keeps saying he wants to be out there as fast as possible, but he’s in a good space, being around the team and soaking up the knowledge and locking into film sessions and doing everything he can do.”
Simmons has yet to make his Nets debut due to a herniated disk in his lower back. He has received an epidural and Nash said the injection helped alleviate some — but not all of — the pressure in his lower back.
