Quote of the week....

[lilfishi22]

lopez is active, his shoulders are not as broad and his body is not as thick as his brother. I have a twin myself and developmentally he was ahead of me and now we are even. Im not sure if Robin will become that 20/10 guy like brook but Robin will develop. Amare does not have the anticipation skills and motor. Robin has the motor but the reason his rebounding numbers is low, He tries to block everything. He also rotates to Amare's man so at times he is not in a good position to board. Amare is suprisingly flat foot on the glass on defense. He gets enough because he likes to pad his stats not necessarily because he is a greater rebounder than robin.

It would be great if he had 20/10 potential like his brother, but I'd be more than happy if he gives us 15/10/2. He's averaging close to 12.8/6/1.3 since he became a starter, so 15/10/2 is not totally above his ceiling. He just needs to work on his rebounding.

[HootieRules]

He was a mediocre rebounder in college so it shouldn't come as a surprise. His presence alone makes us a better rebounding team and frees up Amare on the glass though. Didn't have that with Frye starting.

[the_warden]

But Lopez doesn't rebound at a high rate. In fact, per 36, he's actually a worse rebounder than Amare.

I'm sorry but I just checked out Amare's and RoLo's per 36 RPG and RoLo is only behind Amare by 0.2 RPG, so really, that is not that bad.

But btw the warden, I love your Leon avatar

But Amare is a bad rebounder. Being almost as good as Amare at rebounding still makes you a bad rebounder.

[Sun Scorched]

Stoudemire has always had the ABILITY to become a good rebounder, just not the DETERMINATION.

I can't speak towards Lopez's ability so far, but he does poses the determination... time will tell.

[plonden]

Lopez is a worse rebounder per 36 than Amare. How do you explain that away?

I would compare Amare and Lopez in their second seasons at which time both players were the same age (21). The stats I am looking at here is ORB%, DREB% and TREB% under the Advanced section.

OREB%: AS: 10.0 RL: 11.2
DREB%: AS: 20.2 RL: 13.3
TREB% AS: 15.0 RL: 12.3

The truth is Amare is a better rebounder in general, with RoLo being the better offensive rebounder and Amare being the much better defensive rebounder in their second seasons in the NBA. IMO you have to examine offensive rebounding and defensive separately as they are technically separate skills (albeit related skills).

[plonden]

Not expecting him to be a league leader in rebounds or anything but only 1 double digit rebounding game for a 7 footer? Still wished they took Speights or Jordan over him...

A couple of interesting tidbits regarding Robin Lopez as a rebounder versus other seven footers. He is fourth among seven footers in offensive rebounding percentage, 21st in defensive rebounding percentage (among 22 eligible players), and 15th in total rebounding percentage. As a note, I put a restriction on the results of 500 minutes played to weed out the bench warmers.

[Jimmy76]

and dont forget he has improved an incredible amount on rebounding since last year

6.9 per 36

to

8.7 per 36 this year

[psyclone1982]

Can we be happy for once with the freakin 2 year man??!?! Geez first it's he's a bust, then he dont play, then he dont do this or that. He's made huge strides, ever think maybe he's not quite done developing yet? Ever notice how big men tend to take a lil longer to fully develop and come into their own?

Here Here, give him a while, I was on the dude is a dud bandwagon last season also, I hope he can prove me wrong, just like Dragic has done so far this year.

[chriscringle95]

You can't compare them to Amare because his role is totally different.

All the Suns ask Amundson to do is rebound and block a shot or two for about 15-20 minutes a game. Same with RoLo.

Amare is asked to score a ton AND rebound and block shots for about 30-35 minutes a game. And he also is guarding a starting 4 or 5 who is more times than not a scoring threat.

Amundson and Lopez would not put up the numbers Amare does on the boards if they were put in the same role because they would not be in position to get garbage put backs and defensive boards. They would be the player shooting on offense the majority of the time and then guarding the other teams main lost post scorer on defense which would limit their opportunities a great deal on defensive rebounds.

Stats are nice, but sometimes don't tell the whole story. I do agree Amundson is a terrific rebounder and Lopez will continue to grow and become a better rebounder.

Also I think RoLo's true value is that he can block and alter shots to shore up the Suns defensive shortcomings. His emergence is why they now don't need to trade Amare. Perfect player to grow next to STAT at the 5 spot.

[NYK 455]

I think if you guys are gonna make any noise in the playoffs, Lopez is gonna have to be that legit rebounder/shotblocker/low post defender you guys have lacked for all these year.