National Basketball Association

Brooklyn Nets: Brook Lopez Is Still One Of The Best Bigs In The NBA

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Why Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez is still very much one of the better centers in the NBA

As the leader of the lowly Brooklyn Nets, Brook Lopez often gets left out of conversations when listing off the top big men in the league. Whether it’s pointing to his rebounding issues or shortcomings on the defensive end, people tend to always look at Brook’s flaws as a player.

Now some of that is warranted, especially his rebounding issues. Per 36 minutes last season, he averaged only 8.4 rebounds a game and 5.1 defensive boards. The former wasn’t terrible, yet he can still do better. But it’s the latter that hurt his play most, as he finished behind Enes Kanter (played less minutes) Mason Plumlee and Ian Mahinmi in defensive rebounding.

The issues aren’t too big of a problem, but it does start to hurt when you can’t finish defensive possessions because of a lack of rebounding from your big men.

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On the defensive end of the floor, Brook Lopez gets a bad rep for some reason, but when looking into the numbers he’s actually one of the best rim protectors in the league.

Last season, he had the third highest defended field goal attempts at the rim with 9.7 a game, and he only allowed opponents to shoot 47.0 percent at the basket. That was better then Andre Drummond (52.6 percent) and Karl-Anthony Towns (49.6 percent,) and also as good as notable rim protector Hassan Whiteside (46.9 percent.)

In the pick-and-roll situations, Brook does a great job of staying in front of ball-handling guards/forwards, as he has quick feet so he can hedge out on the screen and guard ball-handlers for small doses if needed.

While in post-up scenarios he allowed a team low 0.77 points per possession, which was good enough to place him in the 70th percentile.

Offensively Brook Lopez can do it all. Whether that’s scoring out of the post, inside or from mid-range, Brook can score in a variety of ways. Out of the high/low block his vast array of post moves allow him to score at ease, while in the mid-range he can shoot all the way out to the three-point line – shot 45 percent from 10-15 feet and 41.5 percent from 16 feet and beyond (long two-pointer.)

Last season, because of a lack of talent at the point guard position Brook was tasked with creating more scoring opportunities for himself and he faired well. He shot 51.8 percent on drives to the basket and if needed, while defenders panicked and ran to the rim hoping to stop him at the basket, Brook did a great job of shooting that push shot/floater from 3-9 feet (shot 47.7 percent.)

But now as he enters a new year, he’s looking to continue to expand his offensive repertoire. In an interview with the Brooklyn Nets radio team on Facebook he talked about the upcoming season, and how he plans to shoot some three-pointers this year.

“Coach Kenny’s giving us a lot of flexibility on the offense. And I think the most important thing is he’s instilled a lot of opportunity and confidence in guys. Just to let them know that they can go out there, test their abilities. And for me specifically that means when the opportunity arises to stretch the floor and open the lane for guys and shoot the three.”

If Lopez can get that jumper working from the outside, it will definitely help the team. Now that doesn’t mean he’s going to be launching three-pointers at every opportunity, but he will be shooting the random one to keep defenses honest.

Over the years, Brook Lopez has shown himself to be one of the best big-men we have in the league. But because of the teams he’s played for, his name doesn’t consistently get recognized, however that isn’t for a lack of talent.

Winning is going to be key, because for as long as he has been on the Nets Brook Lopez hasn’t really had anything to look forward to on the team.

But now with a revamped front office and coaching staff the Nets are looking to continue to improve, and at the forefront of that is going to be their “face of the franchise” Brook Lopez.

He needs to get this team moving in the right direction, an if he can do just that, it will supplant his name as being one the best bigs we have in the NBA.

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