NBA: Five Red Flag Players To Avoid This Summer

4. Brook Lopez:

When the conversation of offensively gifted big men comes up, Brook Lopez was always in the conversation. In his first three seasons, Lopez played all 82 games. When healthy, he’s a dominant low-post scorer and although he’s not a terrific rebounder (7.3 rebounds per game in his career typically isn’t great for a seven-footer), he improved his shot-blocking in the past few seasons.

Unfortunately, “when healthy” hasn’t really applied to Brook Lopez lately. In the 2011-12 preseason, Lopez broke his foot and missed the first 32 games of the season. He scored 38 points in his third game back, but two games later he injured his right ankle and missed the rest of the season after eventually being shut down because the Brooklyn Nets had a terrible record. He played 74 games the following season, but this past season, he only played in 17 games before being shut down again with a foot injury.

Lopez was dazzling in those 17 games, averaging a career high 20.7 points per game while shooting 56 percent from the field. He had a Player Efficiency Rating of 25.5 and if he had played all season, that would have been the seventh highest PER in the league. But if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle. Nobody wants to go anywhere near the $32 million Lopez is owed over the next two seasons except maybe the Lakers, who are desperate to be a playoff team for the end of Kobe’s career.

It’s also worth noting that Lopez, despite being a much improved shot-blocker, isn’t necessarily a great defensive player. The Nets drastically improved after Lopez went down and Jason Kidd starting playing his weird, versatile lineups. There used to be a time when you could say “You can’t have ‘Brooklyn’ without ‘Brook.'” But if anyone’s even remotely interested in taking a chance on Lopez, the Nets should take what they can get for a guy whose best days could be behind him.