GT#25: Philadelphia @ Brooklyn - 12/23 - 3:00pm on YES

[vincecarter4pres]

Joe Johnson put on a NBA Jam On Fire like jump shot clinic in the 3rd!

[Paradise]

The best thing about this game was Blatche looking like a 6th man with Lamar Odom's skill set.

[therealbig3]

I would love Varejao, personally. He's a good defender, he can rebound, and he knows how to run the PnR.

I'd trade Lopez in a deal for Varejao. Obviously, if we can use Humphries to get Varejao, great, but if they demand Lopez instead, I'd do it.

Noah would be my ideal player to acquire, but I'm pretty sure the Bulls plan to keep him in their long-term outlook unless he can bring back a bona fide superstar.

What about Lopez for Varejao, Humphries for Boozer? Not good at coming up with trades, and don't know what other players would need to be involved, but I'd love a Boozer/Varejao front line.

Lopez for Varejao? Why the hell would we ever do this? Just makes no sense.

Varejao's better than Lopez, and is on the trading block, and he provides things that this team needs (a viable PnR big, a strong rebounder, a strong defender).

I'm actually thinking it's the Cavs that might not do that. Taking off the homer glasses...Lopez just isn't a valuable asset right now.

Combine his defensive issues, his rebounding issues, and the questions about his health...and I'm pretty sure most GMs see him as a soft, injury-prone big man with a long-term commitment...and I can't really disagree. Varejao is a player any contender would love to have, and they'll probably shell out more attractive assets than Lopez.

Honestly, Humphries might be a better trade asset right now than Lopez. Neither one really has much value in terms of production, but Humphries is at least on a short contract, and becomes a huge expiring after this season.

[vincecarter4pres]

Wow.

[N Ireland Nets]

I would love Varejao, personally. He's a good defender, he can rebound, and he knows how to run the PnR.

I'd trade Lopez in a deal for Varejao. Obviously, if we can use Humphries to get Varejao, great, but if they demand Lopez instead, I'd do it.

Noah would be my ideal player to acquire, but I'm pretty sure the Bulls plan to keep him in their long-term outlook unless he can bring back a bona fide superstar.

What about Lopez for Varejao, Humphries for Boozer? Not good at coming up with trades, and don't know what other players would need to be involved, but I'd love a Boozer/Varejao front line.

Lopez for Varejao? Why the hell would we ever do this? Just makes no sense.

Varejao's better than Lopez, and is on the trading block, and he provides things that this team needs (a viable PnR big, a strong rebounder, a strong defender).

I'm actually thinking it's the Cavs that might not do that. Taking off the homer glasses...Lopez just isn't a valuable asset right now.

Combine his defensive issues, his rebounding issues, and the questions about his health...and I'm pretty sure most GMs see him as a soft, injury-prone big man with a long-term commitment...and I can't really disagree. Varejao is a player any contender would love to have, and they'll probably shell out more attractive assets than Lopez.

Honestly, Humphries might be a better trade asset right now than Lopez. Neither one really has much value in terms of production, but Humphries is at least on a short contract, and becomes a huge expiring after this season.

What is this excrement on my screen?!?

Can't believe this, I mean Varejao is an injury waiting to happen, as in he's injured all the bloody time.

Get out of here with this crap about Lopez being worthless. Crazy crazy crazy excrement

[therealbig3]

Let's be real...outside of like 7 games, Lopez has been terrible.

For the year, he's been an average defender and an average rebounder, which are big improvements over his 2011 season, but still not exactly positive attributes. He just doesn't have a high defensive IQ, there are a ton of times when he doesn't box out or just loses his man, he's naturally slow, and his defense as a whole has been inconsistent. Quite good in some games, and then terrible in others. His offense hasn't been great either, as his passing from the post has improved, but still isn't very good. And his scoring efficiency has plummeted, down to 53% TS. And as NyCe noted, he is a pretty big black hole on offense that doesn't really help his teammates.

So why is it so irrational to not really be that high on the guy, or to think he doesn't have much trade value? Average defensively, average on the boards, average offensively...that adds up to an average player, who missed an entire season because of foot issues and has just missed 7 games because of as mild of a foot sprain as you can get (on the same foot), and is on a fat 60 million dollar contract for the next 4 years.

Varejao IS better than him, don't see how that can be debated.

[vincecarter4pres]

Varejao is not a better player then Brook, I'm sorry.

Lopez is a huge presence in the middle and his TS% is so low basically as a direct result of his free throw percentage being so awful right now. Look how high is eFG% is.

His scoring game is big time. He's now only generating 41% of his FGA's from his jumper. His passing is improved and overall has been an above average defender.

It's no coincidence that the Nets go on a 5 game losing streak to solid but unspectacular teams while he is out and lost 2 games while he was barely allowed to play in the 4th quarter. His talent makes up for Avery's awful coaching.

He's still quite flawed but his impact on the game is enormous.

And we can talk foot injury all you like but then please acknowledge that Side Show is held together by twine and packing tape and is basically a 40+ game stint on the IR with some major season ending injury waiting to happen pretty much every season but 2 in his career and is almost 31 himself.

His defense is decent but overrated and his shot blocking sucks, his presence in the paint on the defensive end is almost completely predicated on taking charges, floppy around like some crack whore at Hunts Point.

His rebounding is great and he's a nice finisher on the pick and roll, but aside from that his offense sucks. He's a great role player and garbage man, but that's all he is. He's exactly the player you put next to a Lopez or LaMarcus Aldridge, not a player you trade them for.

Lopez is averaging 22/8.5 and 3 blocks per36.

He's 24 years old and has shown a lot of improvement in the cerebral areas of the game on both sides, at least and especially this year, nothing suggests he'll stop learning and improving.

Awful idea IMHO.

[jeff1624]

He has a PER of 23.5, shooting above 50% from the field (which is fantastic for a guy that scores most of his points on isolations), is posting up his highest Blk%, Stl%, second highest reb% and lowest TO% ever... and before he got injured he was without question our best/most effective player on a team that was 10-4 at the time but yeah, he's been absolutely terrible most of the season.

Lastly, let me add a respectable "lol" at the notion that he's "average offensively."

[Shark]

I think that biggest thing with Lopez is that there is a perception problem. His game isn't exactly pleasing to the eye, but when you look at his impact on this team you begin to realize just how important he is.

[N Ireland Nets]

On what planet is Varejao better than Lopez??

Yes Varejao is having a tremendous season but that doesn't make him a better player.

Look at his career numbers, Varejao is far more likely to regress to the mean than maintain this standard.

Even if he did he's already what 31, he hasn't got long left and is highly injury prone.

Oh and even in Varejao's best year, he still hasnt got a PER as good as Lopez's currently.

Varejao's PER: 22.25
Lopez's PER: 23.58

BOOM!!!
HEADSHOT

[therealbig3]

I don't feel like a full-out debate right now, so I'll just say I really disagree with some of your guys' assessments of Lopez, and that I'm really not all that high on him right now. I feel like some of you are really overrating him and his impact.

BTW, yeah, outside of game 1 against Toronto, game 4 against Orlando, game 6 against Cleveland, game 7 against Boston, game 9 against LAL, game 10 against GS, and game 11 against LAC...he's been really underwhelming, to say the least. And since coming back from injury, his defense has been disturbingly identical to his 2011 defense, in addition to a few games here and there before that.

And one last thing...PER overrates volume scorers, and that's what Lopez is. It also overrates players that play on low pace teams, since it's pace-adjusted, and we play at the slowest pace in the league. And adjusting Lopez's FT% to 80% (59/74 from the line instead of the 50/74 he is right now), and his TS% is still only 54.7%, which is still pretty unimpressive. The much bigger issue that's affecting his efficiency is how soft he's playing, because he's barely getting to the line this year.