In any case of how much longer Kevin Durant is out with a knee injury, the Brooklyn Nets are going to be playing Kyrie Irving in pick-and-rolls and Ben Simmons off the ball. That means Simmons has a lot of work to do on his screening. 

“With the [past] five quarters you saw us have shooters on the floor and the basketball in [Irving’s] hands, [Simmons] setting screens, rolling, putting pressure on the defense,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said before Sunday’s win against the Warriors. “Now we’ve got to be able to learn how to play with both [Simmons] and [Claxton] in the game. Just from a rebounding, from a size-wise [perspective]. It puts pressure on us if those two aren’t in the game. 

“So we’ve got to figure out how to play whether that is [Simmons] is in pick-and-roll and he’s a screener – which we have to get him better at – because he does have the ability to roll and still be able to find [Claxton] at the rim or find shooters. Because of his size, we’ve got to be able to do both: Have him on the floor with [Claxton], be able to play in the pocket as a screener and then still have the basketball in [Irving’s] hands.”