Portland Trail Blazers: Robin Lopez Is Under-Appreciated
It’s very easy to overlook Robin Lopez. He isn’t flashy like Damian Lillard, he doesn’t sink 3s at an incredible pace like Wesley Matthews, he doesn’t do just about everything like Nicolas Batum and he isn’t dominant like LaMarcus Aldridge. Comparing him to the rest of the Trail Blazers starting lineup isn’t fair for him because the rest of the starting lineup is so spectacular.
Lopez is the least eye-catching player in the starting lineup. However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t important.
Robin Lopez does a lot of the little things. He’s a good rebounding presence and he provides size to the frontcourt. Lopez also helps Aldridge out defensively and helps mask some of Portland’s defensive miscues. Lopez is actually one of the only players on Portland who actively plays defense, as most of the line up is not very good at it at all.
Lopez can’t be appreciated with regular statistics, as solid as they were. However, advanced stats help do him justice. Here were his advanced numbers from last season:
| Season | G | MP | PER | TS% | ORB% | DRB% | TRB% | BLK% | ORtg | DRtg | OWS | DWS | WS | WS/48 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | 82 | 2603 | 17.7 | .605 | 13.6 | 15.3 | 14.5 | 3.7 | 128 | 107 | 7.0 | 2.6 | 9.5 | .176 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/26/2014.
We can immediately see that Robin Lopez was infinitely more valuable than his 11.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game make him out to be. First of all, Robin Lopez played solid defense for Portland last season, cleaning up a lot of mistakes. Lopez had a 3.7 percent Block Percentage (BLK%), which ranked him 14th in the league. He blocked 1.7 shots per game, placing right behind Dwight Howard as the eighth-highest total in the league. His Defensive Rating (DRtg) was not very good at 107, but a lot of that is also placed on his team’s overall deficiencies defensively.
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Lopez was efficient from the field last year, shooting 55.1 percent from the field. This shone through in his Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and his True Shooting Percentage (TS%). His PER of 17.7 was 14th among qualifying centers and his True Shooting Percentage of 60.5 percent was tied for the sixth-highest in the league.
His Defensive Rebounding Percentage (DRB%) of 15.3 was thoroughly mediocre and didn’t even sniff the top 20. However, his Offensive Rebounding Percentage (ORB%) of 13.6 was the fourth-highest in the league, and Robin Lopez was actually third in total offensive rebounds.
This helped him shoot such a high percentage from the floor and helped keep the offense efficient. As a result, Robin Lopez led the league in Offensive Rating (ORtg) with an astonishingly high 128. Lopez’s Offensive Win Shares (OWS) of 7 was the 14th highest in the league. He was 19th in both total Win Shares (WS) with 9.5, which is actually 0.1 Win Shares removed from Damian Lillard’s total last season. And, he was also 19th in Win Shares per 48 minutes (WS/48) with a very good .176.
Clearly, Robin Lopez was doing something right last season to have such great advanced numbers. Lopez’s offensive rebounding skills fit perfectly with Aldridge and his defensive rebounding chops. Both of them fit extremely well with the team because one has strengths where the other has weaknesses. For example, Adridge is an offensive juggernaut but struggles on the defensive end, while Lopez struggles on the offensive end, but can more than hold his own defensively.
Of course, there is a reason why Robin Lopez is overlooked. For one, the rest of his starting lineup is a lot more electrifying to watch. Two, he isn’t the best Lopez twin, as his brother Brook Lopez is a lot better when he can manage to play. And three, he is a role player, through and through. Robin Lopez can’t really create his own shot and he won’t be setting the league ablaze with amazing offensive displays.
He will never win the Defensive Player of the Year award either. Lopez is simply a guy who knows his role and executes it to perfection.
Robin Lopez is basically the “glue guy” that keeps the lineup together; the team would be substantially worse without him and he does a lot of things right to keep the starters rolling along. He rebounds with the best of them on offense and keeps the offense rolling with timely put backs. That is amazing production for $6 million a year. If the Trail Blazers want to improve on last year’s impressive season, Robin Lopez will be key in maintaining their elite production.