Will Ben Simmons play for Nets on Wednesday in Boston?

Jacque Vaughn was “hopeful” that Nets star Ben Simmons would be available to play on Wednesday when Brooklyn travels to Boston to face the Celtics, but any clarity around the knee soreness Simmons has been feeling has not come.

Simmons missed Monday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night and has now missed 13 games this season for the Nets. He was coming off of offseason back surgery to correct an issue that had prevented him from playing last year after he was traded to Brooklyn.

Vaughn said that Simmons, as well as injured forward T.J. Warren, were “showing signs of progress” and that he hoped they would be ready for Wednesday’s game.

Simmons dealt with knee soreness earlier this season as well and the issue appeared again while facing Detroit last week in the second game of a back-to-back. Whether the workload has been too much or playing in back-to-backs is the issue, Vaughn hasn’t had that discussion with Simmons,

“We haven’t gotten to specifics. I think everything’s right now been based around getting him back to healthy, to an ability to play as soon as possible,” the Nets coach said.

Brooklyn is still playing without Kevin Durant and Simmons is needed on the court to help the Nets push through until they have their franchise cornerstone back. While Simmons has shown flashes of the player that he once was in Philadelphia keeping that effort up consistently has been an issue.

The Nets need Simmons to put up more points and play that aggressive brand of basketball when he is on the floor for the full 48 minutes.

And when he is healthy, the question becomes will Simmons be able to play in back-to-back games going forward. When asked about that, Vaughn made his expectations clear.

“The type of person I am and coach, I want every guy available for every single game,” Vaughn said. “That is the goal of this team. That’s every single player from one through 17 until I’m told otherwise. I think our conversations (with Simmons) will be real and what can we handle from a management and load perspective, cumulative loads across the board over the course of games. So all those questions will be on the table in order for us to keep our group healthy and whole as we trend toward the end of the year.”