Oh, Brother! Top 6 Sibling Tandems In The NBA
The Brooklyn Nets have three current players who have siblings playing in the NBA: Brook Lopez, Mason Plumlee and Marquis Teague. Each player has found a niche in Brooklyn but they aren’t the only pairs of siblings in the league.
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There are the Morris twins, Markieff and
Marcus Morris; Pau and
Marc Gasol; Cody and
Tyler Zeller. Let’s see how the pairs stack up against each other.
1. Pau and Marc Gasol
Pau entered the league in 2001 and played for the Memphis Grizzlies where he quickly established himself in the upper echelon of NBA centers. He sports career averages of 18 points, nine rebounds and nearly two blocks per game.
The former Laker, who won two straight NBA Finals in Los Angeles, recently signed a three-year deal for $22 million with the Chicago Bulls. The Spaniard is a crafty low-post player, who can defend adequately, and was as dominant as any center in the league not named Tim Duncan or Dwight Howard several years ago.
Pau made it hard for his brother to follow in his footsteps but Marc has sure tried.
Gasol entered the league a Laker but was traded to the Grizzlies in a deal that included his brother Pau, something that has never occurred before in NBA history. He made his Grizzlies debut in 2008 and has been a starter since. He advanced passed the first round of the NBA playoffs twice and made it to the Western Conference Finals once.
Gasol was the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 and made the all-star team. He is likely due for a pay raise next summer.
2. Brook and Robin Lopez
The Lopez twins both played under Trent Johnson at Stanford and were drafted within five picks of each other during the first round of the 2008 NBA Draft.
Brook has enjoyed a rough, injury prone tenure with the Nets but has remained relatively successful. Robin has bounced around from the Phoenix Suns, to the New Orleans Hornets and finally the Portland Trailblazers.
After a respectable rookie season, Brook Lopez enjoyed an increase in production the following year posting 19 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. While leading a horrendous New Jersey Nets team, Lopez started all 164 games between 2009-2011.
Lopez made the Eastern Conference All-Star team in 2012-2013.
He would incur a devastating injury the second time in his career injuring his foot 17 games into the 2013 season.
Robin was drafted by Phoenix and looked to provide a defensive backbone for the defenseless Suns. Lopez didn’t see much action his first season behind Shaquille O”Neal but saw a pickup in playing time his Sophomore season.
After getting hurt and falling out of the rotation over the next two seasons, he was acquired by the Hornets where he started all 82 games. Portland respected his services enough to trade for him as part of a three-team deal with Sacramento where he quickly became a staple on the team and in the community. Last season, he posted a career high in rebounds with close to nine.
3. Jeff and Marquis Teague
Older brother Jeff was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks with the 19th pick in 2009 NBA Draft. Teague saw little playing time during his first two seasons behind Mike Bibby, Jamal Crawford and Kirk Hinrich. He enjoyed his big break in 2011 when posted a career-high in minutes and started all 66 games of the shortened lockout season.
After a 13 point, five assist season in 2012, Teague led the Hawks to the playoffs for the second year in a row. He was awarded with a four-year, $32 million contract in the off-season. In 2014, Teague and the Hawks almost upset the heavily favored Indiana Pacers, taking them seven games in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Marquis was drafted by the Chicago Bulls with the 29th pick of the 2012 NBA Draft. Teague didn’t play much during his first two seasons, even spending time with the Iowa Energy of the D-League in 2013.
Earlier this year, Teague was traded to Brooklyn and saw little action. He faces a cluttered backcourt in Brooklyn, especially with the arrival of Markel Brown and Xavier Thames.
4. Miles and Mason Plumlee
Older brother Miles and younger brother Mason both played collegiate ball at Duke and were drafted in the first round of the 2012 and 2013 draft respectively.
After spending much of his rookie season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League, Miles was traded from the Indiana Pacers to the Phoenix Suns where he started nearly every game. Plumlee averaged eight points, eight rebounds and one block in 2013-2014.
Mason was drafted by Brooklyn with the 22nd pick in 2013 and played in 70 games. Plumlee made the most of his minutes and shot a lights-out 66% from the field. His breakout moment came on a block of LeBron James at the end of regulation in a win that completed a season sweep of the Miami Heat.
5. Markieff and Marcus Morris
The versatile Morris twins were taken with consecutive picks in the 2011 NBA Draft. Markieff went to Phoenix and Marcus to Houston.
Markieff played in 63 games his rookie season and averaged 20 minutes per game. He played in all 82 games as a Sophomore but continued to shoot the ball at a 40% clip. Things would change in his third season.
Under new head coach Jeff Hornacek, Morris upgraded his field goal percentage by nearly a full percentile and came close to doubling his scoring output from the season before.
Marcus’s career in Houston didn’t get off to get a good start. Shrouded in the D-League for much of his initial campaign, and appearing in only 17 games with Houston, Morris was traded to Houston at the 2012 trade deadline, reuniting him with brother Markieff.
Morris played in all 82 games and averaged 10 points and four rebounds of his third NBA season.
6. Tyler and Cody Zeller
Older brother Tyler was drafted with the 17th pick by the Dallas Mavericks and sent to Cleveland. Zeller commanded significant playing time on a porous Cavaliers squad and averaged eight points, six rebounds and a block during his rookie season. He saw a significant decrease in playing time but managed to improve his field goal percentage a full percentile to .540%. This off-season, Zeller was traded to the Boston Celtic as part of a three-team deal involving the Brooklyn Nets.
Cody was drafted by the Charlotte Bobcats with the 4th pick in 2013. The Indiana-product played in all 82 games and averaging 17 minutes per game. Zeller came away with averages of six points and four rebounds per game.