Nets vs. Maccabi Haifa! (Preseason Oct. 3rd)

[mikhailjordan]

No sure if serious...

[mikhailjordan]

67% of Brook's shots came from within 10 feet, 78% came from within 15 feet. Amongst power forwards and centers Lopez ranked fourth in the league in free throw attempts per game trailing only Dwight Howard, Amar'e Stoudemire, and Dirk Nowitzki. Brook Lopez ended the year with 126 dunks, 6th overall in the league, and a handful more than top tier players like Lebron James and Dwyane Wade.

When you couple the above along with the fact that Lopez is not an elite athlete who does his damage by taking defenders off the dribble, all factors point to one irrevocable truth. Which is to say, in order for Brook Lopez to have achieved the statistical feats above he necessarily had to frequently establish and maintain excellent position in the painted area.

If Lopez was a "weakling" who got routinely pushed out of the post, he couldn't have taken as many shots as he did that close to the basket.

If Lopez was a "weakling" he couldn't possibly have taken as many free throws as he did without breaking down.

If Lopez was a "weakling" given the fact that he doesn't beat players with his quickness, he wouldn't have been able to successfully complete as many dunks as he did.

Strength is not one of Brook Lopez's weak areas.

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It's also a medical fact that tall players with poor lower body strength are highly susceptible to injury of the lower extremities. Lopez has played 2 full seasons without missing a single game. If Lopez's lower body strength was as terrible as some are erroneously claiming, at his size Brook would be constantly injured from the wear and tear of the regular season.

Fatigue not strength was the primary culprit in most instances where Lopez was up-routed from the post. The second and third major factors were improper spacing and Lopez's inexperience (which inevitably led to frustration on Brook's end).

---

I'm fine with criticizing Brook but if you're going to criticize him... Criticize the aspects of Brook's game that are worthy of criticism (namely his maturity level, his defensive rebounding last year, and his penchant for telegraphing passes).

[demens]

Fatigue not strength was the primary culprit in most instances where Lopez was up-routed from the post. The second and third major factors were improper spacing and Lopez's inexperience (which inevitably led to frustration on Brook's end).

In the middle of all that you actually agree Lopez was indeed pushed out from post position. If you prefer to blame that on fatigue thats up to you. It doesn't matter to me what you blame it on as long as you see the problem which it sounded at 1st like you didnt.

[mikhailjordan]

Of course there were instances where Lopez got pushed out of the post, only Shaquille O'neal comes to mind as the one truly immovable player in the course of NBA history but to insinuate this is a serious problem for Lopez isn't accurate.

The times he was moved out of the post were few and far between and greatly outweighed by the number of times he overpowered defenders in the post.

[demens]

That i dont agree with. Not only was he pushed out of the post way too often, especially for a big strong 7 footer, he got pushed out by some rather weak opponents.

Its hard to recall specifics, but this used to drive me nuts last season and i have the specific instances many, many, many times in game threads. I can remember a few of the games at the end of the season, vs the Bucks in particular. where 38 year old Kurt Thomas was punking the hell out of Brook. He always seems to have trouble vs any remotely physical center, guys like Dalembert, Chandler, Dampier, etc. And then comes the mean look on his face, stupid fouls and so on.

[vincecarter4pres]

I'm in the middle here on this issue.

On one hand I think demens is exaggerating a little something, on the other Mik is trying to act like it isn't an issue at all based upon stats.

It's obvious Brook was getting man handled in the post too much last year if you were watching the games, but it wasn't an every possession type of thing, but it was an every game thing.

[mikhailjordan]

I'm in the middle here on this issue.

On one hand I think demens is exaggerating a little something, on the other Mik is trying to act like it isn't an issue at all based upon stats.

It's obvious Brook was getting man handled in the post too much last year if you were watching the games, but it wasn't an every possession type of thing, but it was an every game thing.

A total disregard for the Nets perimeter players didn't help Brook's cause and neither did the the Nets inability to feed the post... But I regress...

Strength wasn't an issue. Fatigue was. Yes. That's my final answer.

[demens]

A total disregard for the Nets perimeter players didn't help Brook's cause and neither did the the Nets inability to feed the post...

Thats one of those ridiculous arguments Devin haters created. You're telling me that out of the 14 players on the roster not 1 can throw a pass into the post? BS. The "nets inability to feed the post" comes from Brook inability to hold good post position and actually be open, which is not "the nets" fault.

[Trader_Joe]

A total disregard for the Nets perimeter players didn't help Brook's cause and neither did the the Nets inability to feed the post...

Thats one of those ridiculous arguments Devin haters created. You're telling me that out of the 14 players on the roster not 1 can throw a pass into the post? BS. The "nets inability to feed the post" comes from Brook inability to hold good post position and actually be open, which is not "the nets" fault.

Harris would get caught up trying to be the hero, jacking up 3's or turning the ball over late in games. Otherwise the other players would get away from feeding the post the minute the 2nd half started when Lopez was fresh. If anything, Frank and Kiki should have insisted the perimeter players feed the post. I have images in my head of Lopez establishing position, calling for the ball and being ignored. Not only that, sometimes the opposing teams' defensive strategies would change at the half and they would deny entry more than the 1st half. It's up to the guards to swing the ball and get the double off of Brook (or get an illegal defense call), and then come back around. Our guards were often too inept or selfish to do that, namely C.Lee, CDR and T.Will (who will hopefully get better at that this season)

[demens]

Yeah yeah, no one ever passes to Brook, coaches dont call plays for Brook, Courtney Lee to selfish to pass to Brook. Poor wide open Brook cant get a break, so give me one.

[Trader_Joe]

Yeah yeah, no one ever passes to Brook, coaches dont call plays for Brook, Courtney Lee to selfish to pass to Brook. Poor wide open Brook cant get a break, so give me one.

Apparently you didn't watch many games.
C.Lee was too small, too poor a passer and ball handler to make quality entry passes.
T.Williams was too poor a decision maker to effectively get Lopez the ball at times.
CDR just didn't pass.

[demens]

Yeah yeah, no one ever passes to Brook, coaches dont call plays for Brook, Courtney Lee to selfish to pass to Brook. Poor wide open Brook cant get a break, so give me one.

Apparently you didn't watch many games.
C.Lee was too small, too poor a passer and ball handler to make quality entry passes.
T.Williams was too poor a decision maker to effectively get Lopez the ball at times.
CDR just didn't pass.

[vincecarter4pres]

I don't know what the eye roll is about?

Sure, I agree with you that Lopez at times got muscled out of the post and needed to work on his strength and that has almost definitely only gotten worse because of his bout with Mono, but there also was the entirely different issue of Lopez being ignored and horrid post entry passes that was so evident if you deny it you're clearly lying.

[Trader_Joe]

Yeah yeah, no one ever passes to Brook, coaches dont call plays for Brook, Courtney Lee to selfish to pass to Brook. Poor wide open Brook cant get a break, so give me one.

Apparently you didn't watch many games.
C.Lee was too small, too poor a passer and ball handler to make quality entry passes.
T.Williams was too poor a decision maker to effectively get Lopez the ball at times.
CDR just didn't pass.

Instead of using meaningless emoticons, why not address what I said.
You seem to not care for T.Will, so surely you agree with me on that part.
What about C.Lee and CDR? I don't remember either of those guys exactly racking up the assists last season.

[demens]

Instead of using meaningless emoticons, why not address what I said.
You seem to not care for T.Will, so surely you agree with me on that part.
What about C.Lee and CDR? I don't remember either of those guys exactly racking up the assists last season.

I dont think its worth addressing this issue because you're trying to blame every player on the roster for poor Brook not getting the ball.

Last nights game vs the Celts. i pointed this out in the game thread during the game. Very similar to last year. Brook dominated the 1st half. 3rd qtr Nets offense stalled, Celts took the lead and Brook was nowhere to be found. Why is that? Is it because Lee and CDR? Is it because Kiki is not calling plays for him? How long til everyone on this new Nets roster is accused of being incompetent passer that are unable to find wide open Brook in the post? You dont need to rack up assists, you dont even need to be a good passer to make the most basics of basics entry passes to an open big man in good post position and you're trying to argue how the Nets had noone on the roster capable of doing that.

The meaningless emotion is because apparently i must not have watched any games. When you somehow managed to lump Lee in with Twitt and CDR as selfish, maybe you only meant the "inept" part for Lee but thats not how it came off.

Yeah yeah, no one ever passes to Brook, coaches dont call plays for Brook, Courtney Lee to selfish to pass to Brook. Poor wide open Brook cant get a break, so give me one.

Apparently you didn't watch many games.