Milwaukee Bucks, The Whiteboard

The Whiteboard: Brook Lopez does it all for the Milwaukee Bucks

Welcome to The Whiteboard, your daily source for the previous day’s best NBA content from around the internet, plus an original column. Catch The Whiteboard here on The Step Back, and subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.

Brook Lopez is a player who has always been put in boxes by the general NBA watching public. For years and years in Brooklyn, Lopez was a low post scorer who didn’t space the floor or play defense. Now that he’s chucking deep 3-pointers on the Milwaukee Bucks, it’s easy to look at Lopez and think that’s all he does. Easy, but incorrect.

The truth is there isn’t much that Brook Lopez doesn’t do for the Bucks. His spacing is certainly important, as Lopez is taking 6.5 3-pointers per game and making a solid 36.1 percent of those 3s.

Adding a 3-point shot to his arsenal hasn’t diminished Lopez’s interior scoring ability, even if he isn’t posting up as much as he used to. Lopez will still back down smaller players on mismatches and is an ideal candidate to take a shot with the shot clock running low, as it doesn’t take him long to get into position and get a respectable attempt up. He’s also developed a penchant for driving and dunking all over fools.

The defensive end is really where Lopez has exceeded expectations. The Bucks have the NBA’s best defense as per defensive rating, and Lopez is a massive part of that. Milwaukee isn’t defending well in spite of their starting center, the Bucks rely on Lopez to anchor their defense.

The Bucks defensive scheme relies on a few tenets, including forcing a lot of mid-range shots and trying to prevent good 3-point shooters from getting open looks. The reason Milwaukee’s defense has been so stingy is how few points in the paint it allows, though, and that is in large part because of Brook Lopez.

With Lopez on the floor, Milwaukee allows just 102.6 points per 100 possessions. Lopez has held opponents to 50.8 percent shooting within six feet of the basket this season, 11.7 percentage points worse than those players typically shoot that close to the rim. Both of those metrics rate him as one of the best three rim-protectors in the NBA this season.

To top it all off, Lopez has not missed a single game this season. The Milwaukee Bucks have plenty of really good players — that’s just how great teams are — but Brook Lopez has doubtlessly been one of the most important for these Bucks.

#Content you can’t miss

Windy went in here; Brian Windhorst describes how the Lakers and Celtics could learn a thing or two from Indiana

Race to the bottom of the top; Wes Goldberg examines the teams competing for the seventh and eighth seeds in the East

This is what shooters do; Zach Kram suggests that the NBA may not be done ramping up its 3-point production quite yet

Definitely a good problem to have; Arjun Balaraman tries to figure out how the Nets’ rotation will adjust now that Brooklyn is getting healthy

OKC needs to be good on that end; Noah Schulte digs into why the Thunder defense has been faltering lately

Products You May Like

Articles You May Like

Why Paul George is probably your favorite NBA player’s favorite player
Kerr defends Steph’s low minute total after loss
Curry shows fire, lifts Dubs after Green’s ejection
Hornets shut down LaMelo (ankle) for season
AD plays 52 mins as Lakers claw back, win in 2OT

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *