Between a bad back and mental health woes, Ben Simmons had basketball taken away from him for almost a year-and-a-half. He’ll officially get it back in Wednesday’s Nets season opener against the Pelicans.

And that can be a nerve-wracking thing.

“Yeah man, you get some anxiety because you know that your peers are doing this every day,” Kevin Durant admitted. “If you don’t do something every day, and while someone else is, you can lose a little bit of confidence. You can lose some of that skill that you acquired because you’re not putting in consistent work just like your peers are. I got a little bit of anxiety, not knowing, for sure. The train don’t start going because you are injured.

“The whole league keeps moving, the game keeps evolving, so you don’t want to get caught behind. When you’re not playing NBA games you feel like you’re left out a bit. So you want to make sure your game is right, conditioning is right, everything is solid like before you left. You can have a little anxiety creep in at times. It’s all about going out there and just playing your hardest when the ball is tipped.”

Durant knows of what he speaks, missing all of 2019-20 rehabbing a ruptured right Achilles. And when Simmons takes the court Wednesday against the Pelicans – his first game since June 20, 2021 – he will have battled back from not just one issue but two.

After Simmons’ last appearance – Philadelphia’s 2021 second-round playoff exit – he requested a trade from the 76ers. He sat out citing mental health concerns, and after his trade-deadline deal to Brooklyn, he missed the rest of last season with a herniated disc that eventually required a microdiscectomy in May.

Simmons – who was seeing a therapist during his time with the 76ers – was excoriated by Philadelphia fans, and mocked on social media. He’s spoken with Irving, who is something of a lightning rod himself, about being under the spotlight.

The light officially gets hotter Wednesday night at Barclays Center.

“I don’t think I have to talk to him a lot because I understand from a human level what it’s like to go through being nervous or having anxiety or overthinking something before it happens,” Irving said. “It’s the first game of a long season, so we don’t want him to put too much unnecessary pressure on himself. It’s just go out there and play basketball. Hoop. Work on what we’ve been working on in preseason and use these 82 tour dates to our advantage and just get ready.

“We’ve got to dance every night, 82 games and perform well. I like to think of it as going on a tour, get to be able to bond. With Ben being one of our leaders on our team he’s going to get a chance to really work through circumstances that many people don’t think he can work through and they’re just waiting for him to fail. I want to focus on the love and keeping everything positive around here and making sure he has the tools and keys for success which is eliminating distractions No. 1.”

Simmons will allow Irving to play more off the ball. He’ll also take up the burden of guarding other teams’ stars.

The Nets have prodded him to be more aggressive – a failure that drew ire in Philadelphia – but understand that may take time, especially coming back off a 16-month layoff.

“I’ve always just supported him,” Steve Nash said. “I know it’s not easy. We want to push him to be more aggressive, to make mistakes so he can go through it faster. But at the same time I tell him I understand. It’s uncomfortable to be aggressive when you don’t have your rhythm, timing, confidence or at least a long kind of sample size or runway to produce and to try.

“I think that trial and error period is so important. And he’s still in it. I’m glad he took some steps the last week or so but that’s still a process you have to undertake because you can’t just get your game back in three weeks of preseason. So I think he’s on a good trajectory, I think he’s got a lot of work to do and I think that well understand and recognize how difficult it is to take a year off of actual NBA games and be at your best.”