FanPost

Brook Lopez

Ok, first of all I'll say that I have been a massive Brook Lopez fan since we stole him from the 08 draft at tenth. The guy came in and contributed straight away and showed great scoring intincts with a low post game reminesint of a young Tim Duncan. He wasn't too shabby on defence either getting almost 2 blocks a game and pulling down 8 boards. He finished his rookie season strong and earned strong consideration for ROY.

Year Team G Min M A Pct M A Pct M A Pct Off Def Tot Ast TO Stl Blk PF PPG
2008-09 NJ 82 30:30 5.5 10.3 53.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.1 2.7 79.3 2.7 5.4 8.1 1.1 1.8 0.5 1.8 3.1 13.0
2009-10 NJ 82 36:53 6.9 13.8 49.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.1 6.2 81.7 3.3 5.4 8.7 2.3 2.5 0.7 1.7 3.1 18.8

Year Team G Min M A Pct M A Pct M A Pct Off Def Tot Ast TO Stl Blk PF PPG
1997-98 SA 82 39:06 8.6 15.7 54.9 0.0 0.1 0.0 3.9 5.9 66.2 3.3 8.6 11.9 2.7 3.4 0.7 2.5 3.1 21.1
1998-99 SA 50 39:17 8.4 16.9 49.5 0.0 0.1 14.3 4.9 7.2 69.0 3.2 8.2 11.4 2.4 2.9 0.9 2.5 2.9 21.7

Now I am defently not suggesting that brook was the second coming of tim duncan, arguably the greatest pf of all time, but the fact that his stats could still look somewhat respectable compared to timmys was and is a sign of the serious potential this kid has.

Part of the reason I feel the need to defend the rampant brook bashing that has been going on most of this season is that I can honestly say Brook Lopez is the only thing the got me through the abomination that was last season. Can't remeber who it was that coined him Brook "The bright spot" Lopez but I couldn't think of a more fitting nick name at the time. And for the clowns who say "we only won 12 games with brook as our main guy" need to stop that that nonsense, Tim Duncan himself couldn't have saved last season. Imagine how many games we would have won if bobcats had taken lopez and we'd got dj.

Now fast forward to this season and watching brook regress so shockingly is almost as gut wrenching as waiting 18 games to get our first win of the season last year. While his scoring has been fairly consistent the thing that has been driving everybody crazy is the rebounding. I'm just as disgusted as anyone else to see todays boxscore and see the entire starting five has gotten as many or more rebounds as our starting centre.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is how coachable a lot of these problems are (REBOUND WITH TWO HANDS MAN). This is why it also makes me so furious to see the absolutely stupid coments of billy king when he says that he isnt fussed about lopez's poor rebounding because he'll probably never be a 10 rebound guy...are you kidding me???? This is what our front office calls development? Our 7'2 supposed franchise centre averages 9 boards in his sophmore season and drops to 6 the next year and instead of addressing the problem you declare to the world that "oh yeah its coo he'll never be a 10 board guy anyway!"...pathetic

Young player development IMO is our biggest problem, we have a team full of scrubs but have given away young talent and lottery picks that we couldnt be bothered developing the second they ran into problems. You can say what you like about Lee, twill, cdr, ryan anderson but they were all young and had potential weather they reach it or not I'd rather take the gamble on them than give significant minutes/contracts to graham and outlaw. Prokky with all his cash needs to get us some serious player development staff and pronto.

But basically my point is that while everyone has the right to be frustrated with brook, comments like 'trade him" and "he'll never be good" are just short sighted and stupid. Regardless of weather you think mono is a worthy excuse the kid is just 22 has had two great seasons and deserves at least another season before he's traded to the lakers for morrison and 2 late round picks.

Just my two cents!

In This FanPost

Teams