Why Brook Lopez Deserves To Be All-NBA Third Team

After a banal start to his 2014-15 campaign, Brook Lopez has seemingly recaptured his 2013 All-Star form, spearheading the Brooklyn Nets‘ current post All-Star break surge up the Eastern Conference standings.

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At present, the Nets are on the outside looking in, clinging to ninth place, in the midst of the ongoing slap fight we call the Leastern Conference playoff “race.”

For a while, however, precisely between the months of January and February, Brooklyn’s postseason aspirations were all but extinguished. But in a desperate move to reinvigorate his veteran-laden squad, coach Lionel Hollins would reinsert the 7-foot-1 behemoth back into the starting lineup on Mar. 8.

Sure enough, since then, the Nets have ripped off 12 wins over their last 21 contests, which include a six-game winning streak during the end of March/beginning of April which, in turn, has propelled the team back into the less-than-combative playoff picture in the East.

His Resume

Serving as the central figure of Brooklyn’s unassuming uprush, Lopez has led the Nets in scoring over the aforementioned stretch, pouring in over 21.4 points, while grabbing 9.5 rebounds, and swatting away 2.0 shots a contest in nearly 34 minutes per game, per Basketball-Reference.

He has been accumulating his numbers with great efficiency as well, scoring on a TS% (true shooting clip) of 60.3 percent and an individual net rating of plus-16.

Not surprisingly, the North Hollywood, Calif., native has effectively stimulated the Nets’ offense, giving it a much-needed dose of fructification.

Bropez Splits /

In fact, the Nets have boasted the league’s eight-most efficient offense since the trade deadline, scoring more than 105.1 points per 100 possessions. In comparison, prior to the All-Star break, Brooklyn was ranked within the bottom third of the league in offensive rating, producing 5.1 points less, per 100 possessions, than their current output.

More interestingly, long known as a rebounding sieve, grabbing a mindbogglingly low amount of rebounds for someone equipped with such immense length, Lopez has been one of the most veracious rebounders since the All-Star break, especially on the offensive glass.

Specifically, spearheaded by the Nets’ screen-and-roll heavy scheme, an often hard diving Brook has snatched approximately 14.3 percent of the offensive rebounds available since the NBA trade deadline, per NBA.com.

To put that into perspective, that mark would rank him fourth in the entire association among rotational players, trailing only Andre Drummond, DeAndre Jordan, and Hassan Whiteside.

Simply put, Lopez’s combination of size and touch has enabled him to become one of the most stress-inducing individual players in basketball over the second half of the incumbent season.

Why He Deserves The 3rd Team Nod

While one might argue that Lopez has only performed at an elite level for merely the last 25-30 games, and in contrast, a player like DeAndre Jordan, for instance, has put in a full season’s worth of work.

However, when you look at the consensus first- and second-team All-NBA centers this season, in Marc Gasol and DeMarcus Cousins, it becomes abundantly clear that while both — particularly Gasol — has had dominant stretches, the twosome were also underwhelming for prolonged periods as well.

In the case of Gasol, after a blistering MVP-esque start, his production has tailed off dramatically as the season has progressed. In fact, since appearing in his second All-Star Game, the 7-foot-1 Spaniard is averaging just 15.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game on a middling 53.1 percent TS% and an individual net rating of minus-2.

Center Ranks /

If Gasol is a surefire first- or second-team center while playing at an elite rate for three-and-a-half months of the year, then Lopez’s third-team merits should not be scoffed upon despite playing at an upper-echelon level for two-and-a-half months.

On the other hand, the usual suspects — most notably, Dwight Howard and Joakim Noah — have either been out, or plagued, by a series of injuries this season; and therein, have either not been at their usual best, or played enough games to be considered worthy as an All-NBA performer.

One may argue that hybrid bigs, like Tim Duncan and Pau Gasol, deserves to be on the third team over Lopez — once again, based on their body of work for the entirety of the season.

But, if we are going by the letter of the law — specifically, choosing two guards, two forwards, and a center for each respective All-NBA team — than that would disqualify both Duncan and Pau, as they “technically” start at the power forward position.

While functionally, both Duncan and Pau are very much centers, their desires to be listed as forwards should be taken into consideration.

Negligible nuances aside, Lopez has had just as much effect on his team’s success as any center in the association. Explicitly, Lopez is the hub of Brooklyn’s suddenly high-octane offense.

Despite his reputation as a low-post savant, coach Hollins has primarily utilized Lopez on the move, using the highly-skilled 7-footer as an off-ball screener and the screener in pick-and-roll sets. In doing so, it has allowed Lopez to flourish on the catch, either picking and rolling or picking and flaring (the “pick-and-push” as Nets’ play-by-play man, Ian Eagle, likes to put it).

Not only is Brook a highly capable mid-range shooter and possesses an incredible touch (flick) from 10-15 feet, he is also a devastating finisher when given a full head of steam, thanks in large to his abnormal 9-foot-5 standing reach.

His skill-set and length causes an avalanche of panic on opposing defenses, and a simple Lopez hard dive down the middle of the lane can cause an entire defense to collapse, giving the Nets’ perimeter ballhandlers a free lane to attack and their corner shooters wide open looks for a catch-and-shoot.

Sure enough, according to NBAWowy!, the Nets score approximately 6.5 points more per 100 possessions when Lopez is on the floor as a starter.

Bropez Effect /

And while Lopez can be quite lumbering on the defensive end, and slow to recover when defending in space, his size allows him to protect the rim at an above-average rate.

In fact, opponents only convert on roughly 49,3 percent of their at the rim attempts when big Brook is patrolling the paint, per NBA.com’s SportVU Data — a stauncher mark than Tyson Chandler, Marc Gasol, and Joakim Noah, the league’s three prior Defensive Player of the Year award winners.

Moreover, the Nets concede 2.4 more points per 100 possessions when Lopez is on the bench.

Conclusion

His impact, on both ends of the floor, has been paramount to Brooklyn’s post-trade deadline success; and if the Nets are indeed going to snatch up the eighth seed from the Indiana Pacers and make the playoffs, Lopez will undoubtedly serve as the team’s undisputed MVP.

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Brook’s individual numbers, on the season and especially during his ongoing torrid stretch, is rivaled only by a select few. They are certainly more impressive than the production put worth by other worthy candidates, like Al Horford and Tyson Chandler.

While well-regarded big men, like Jordan, Duncan, and Pau, has consistently been the bedrock of their team’s foundation for the majority of the year, Lopez’s stretch as a top-5 to top-10 player, much like Marc Gasol earlier during the year, should catapult him into All-NBA status.

No center in the league is as offensively dynamic, or inspires the same type of fear on the opposing defenses as Lopez. More importantly, his fine play has almost single-handedly saved the Nets’ rather uneventful, lost season.

*Stats current going into April 15’s slate of games

Next: NBA: 10 Players Who Deserve More Appreciation

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