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Seth Pollack wrote:Robin Lopez Continues Search For Explosiveness, Despite Suns' Claims He's Healthy

Last season, according to Synergy Sports Tech data, Lopez was ranked in the top three percent of the league in offensive rebounding scoring efficiency, recording 23 percent of his points on put backs. As the roll man on pick and rolls, Lopez connected on 69 percent of his attempts which rivaled Amare Stoudemire.

This season. the numbers have dropped considerably on both accounts. The only improvement is in his spot-up game which improved from 40 percent last season to an excellent 57.5 percent this year.
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Even when Lopez has a solid six minutes to start the game, he rarely comes back in again until the second half, if at all.

Watching film of Robin's above the rim play from last season as compared to what he's able to do now, there's really very little question that he's not the same athletic, explosive player that we first saw after the Suns drafted him with the 15th pick in 2008.
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Lopez suffered an injury to his back late last March which caused nerve damage in his right leg that he says he's still not fully recovered from. Despite what Babby said on the radio, it's not an injury that's fully healed.
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Why would Babby publicly discount the impact of an injury that so clearly has limited Lopez' progression into the player the organization thought he could be? The obvious answer is that he doesn't want to diminish Robin's value in a potential trade.
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Guys this size who move as well as Lopez don't come around very often. There's a reason the Los Angeles Lakers haven't given up on Andrew Bynum and there's a reason Greg Oden will get plenty of chances to come back to the league. These guys are special, and while Robin's upside isn't as high as Bynum's and Oden's, his combination of size, athleticism, skill and energy is rare.

For Robin's sake lets hope he gets back what he lost and that he's traded to a team that will show more patience in developing young players. You hate to see anybody not have a fair opportunity to reach their potential.

hunterxaz wrote:Why would you want a garbage player like Earl Clark? Get something we can use and would help. Diaw thrived when Stat was down, I wouldn't be opposed to that.

ginobiliflops wrote:lol, hunteraz's hate for EC is great.

rsavaj wrote:Let me just put out my final thoughts on Lopez since the offseason is practically here. I don't think he's a bust. I don't think he's a terrible player.

I think he's a 22 year old(only a little older than me) who has been playing injured this whole season. He's 22 years old. If you want to use Gortat's play to denigrate Lopez, please let me know how well Gortat's was faring in the NBA when he was 22. And I'm not comparing Lopez to Nash as players, but we thought Nash was crap when he was 22, and he managed to turn things around. Lopez can do the same.

I love Gortat. He's our center of the future. He's part of the core of this team. He's one of the best things to happen to this franchise. But I will not point to him and then say "YOUNG INJURED ROBIN LOPEZ, WHY CAN'T YOU PLAY LIKE THIS?!"

We know what Robin can do when he's healthy. We've seen it firsthand. Do you judge him off his healthy games, or do you judge him off his injured games?

This front office has no patience at all. Lopez will be gone this summer, and we'll probably throw in a few picks for good measure. Giving up on a 7 footer who can make a nice backup is supremely stupid, but we're going to do it, and some(most?) of you will clap and laugh gleefully.

rsavaj wrote:Let me just put out my final thoughts on Lopez since the offseason is practically here. I don't think he's a bust. I don't think he's a terrible player.

I think he's a 22 year old(only a little older than me) who has been playing injured this whole season. He's 22 years old. If you want to use Gortat's play to denigrate Lopez, please let me know how well Gortat's was faring in the NBA when he was 22. And I'm not comparing Lopez to Nash as players, but we thought Nash was crap when he was 22, and he managed to turn things around. Lopez can do the same.

I love Gortat. He's our center of the future. He's part of the core of this team. He's one of the best things to happen to this franchise. But I will not point to him and then say "YOUNG INJURED ROBIN LOPEZ, WHY CAN'T YOU PLAY LIKE THIS?!"

We know what Robin can do when he's healthy. We've seen it firsthand. Do you judge him off his healthy games, or do you judge him off his injured games?

This front office has no patience at all. Lopez will be gone this summer, and we'll probably throw in a few picks for good measure. Giving up on a 7 footer who can make a nice backup is supremely stupid, but we're going to do it, and some(most?) of you will clap and laugh gleefully.

rsavaj wrote:^^Word, Miklo. Whenever somebody says "he has a bad back", are you simply parroting what you read on the boards, what you've heard on the radio, or are you actually thinking about his injury and what it means?

"That's probably been the biggest mystery for our team," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said of the lack of improvement in Lopez's game. "In actuality, we really thought that he would probably be the second-most-important guy on our team, especially if he took a big leap. I'm not real sure if it's the injury or what, but he hasn't been able to give us the consistent play that we thought we'd be able to get from him.”

"... One of the things that I thought had been a great thing was he was one of the big men that had great athleticism,” Gentry added, “He's struggled in that department a bit. I'm not sure if he's completely healthy and not saying that. It's not the type of year he anticipated or we anticipated."

Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2 ... z1Hjx4Rr3S

rsavaj wrote:Noah (9th pick) was a 22 year old rookie, had a PER of 15.5 and his team won 33 games
Lopez last season was 21, in his 2nd yr, had a 17.6 PER and the team won 54 games

Lopez has time to grow. Giving up on him now would be a mistake. What's the rush to move him? I mean, he's cheap...it's not like he's weighing down our payroll.

And if he sucks as much as you guys say he does, who will take him anyways? So...again I ask, why move him?