May 6, 2010
The Information is Out There
Expressive as he can be on the court, Nets center Brook Lopez seems content to leave the basketball behind him once he steps off the hardwood.
He cares, works hard and late to improve and can grasp the game as well as any center you could coach. He’s cordial, sometimes mischievous and answers everything asked of him. Yet you get the sense that sometimes Lopez would rather be browsing the racks for DC’s latest comic offerings than dissect his sport for mass consumption, one soundbite-sized quote at a time.
What aspect of your game progressed the most this season?
“I don’t know, honestly. I think there’s a lot more patience. I think a lot more, and try to make the defense react more to what I do than the other way around.”
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Team-wise, what positives can you take away from such a tough year?
“Everything we’ve learned, first and foremost – all the experiences we’ve had together. I think I’ve grown a lot closer out of it, with the team in general.”
Closer in what ways?
“We just kept talking about how no one could get us out of this but us. It’s the guys we have here; no one else was going to come. This is who we have. We’ve got to come together and just work to change this atmosphere and win.”
Those answers are straight out of the Derek Jeter school of media mastery: succinct, respond fully to the question, and border on inscrutable.
What he’s not saying is, “Watch me play. It’s all out there.”
... There and throughout the wonderful world of statistics!
Lopez played in all 82 games for a second straight season, this time leading the team in points (18.8), rebounds (8.6) and blocks (1.7), making him one of four players in the league to do so; the others were Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan and Andrew Bogut. He was the only player to top 18.5 PPG, 8.5 RPG and 1.5 BPG.
Lopez posted 33 point/rebound double-doubles, shot .817 from the free-throw line – third among qualifying centers – and led the Nets in scoring 38 times while scoring 20-plus points 34 times. His player efficiency rating (PER) of 20.11 earned him a spot among the league’s top six centers, and according to the Web site 82games.com, he outperformed his counterparts throughout the year.
“Brook’s always been good down low on the block,” says Nets shooting guard Courtney Lee. “But he’s learning how to make reads, he’s making the right plays and he’s making the right passes. He’s been a good helpside defender, too.”
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