Robin Lopez

Colossus · Post #1 » by **Colossus** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:54 pm

What happened to this guy? During last year's playoffs I thought he was looking to be a future all star, a gritty C that rebounded and had some post game. Then he fell off a cliff, and Gortat took his minutes. Was he playing injured, can he get back to that old level, or what happened?

Scubetrolis · Post #2 » by **Scubetrolis** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:27 pm

he really began to focus on the career he actually wants, being a cartoonist. basketball is simply a way for him to be set for life, he doesnt like the game, its not his passion.

thats his problem, i think.

DarenG · Post #3 » by **DarenG** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:43 pm

Colossus wrote:What happened to this guy? During last year's playoffs I thought he was looking to be a future all star, a gritty C that rebounded and had some post game. Then he fell off a cliff, and Gortat took his minutes. Was he playing injured, can he get back to that old level, or what happened?

His back is jacked up and he lost 8 inches on his vertical for starters. Also, he regressed mentally as well. I have to dispute your take on him being a future all-star. He was always one of the worst rebounding centers in the NBA even when healthy. His defense was also hit or miss. He was also one of them most inefficient centers in the NBA as well.

Case and point. Lopez was drafted to play defense, rebound and be an interior presence. Even when Lopez was healthy he managed double digit rebounds only 4 times the entire season last year. This year he managed double digit rebounds three times despite getting 1/2 the season as our starter. You can't have a legit 7 footer rebounding like that.

I know everybody got excited about Lopez and his scoring flashes last year but people IMO sort of forgot why he was drafted. Let's not also forget that the Suns were almost dead last in Opposing Points in the paint, scoring in the Paint and rebounds with Robin as our Center. When Gortat moved into the starting lineup all that immediately improved. We moved up in each one of those categories by years end. In fact, Gortat's numbers stacked up against the best centers in the league. Gortat also managed more double doubles then any other center in the same period (1/2 season) with the exception of Dwight Howard.

Frank Lee · Post #4 » by **Frank Lee** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 7:02 pm

^ yeah... other than that... :clap:

(Hey what happened to the thumbsup smiley?)

Post #5 » by **TASTIC** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:05 pm

Agree with DarenG 100%. He just doesn't look talented enough either, you can scream and shout and break doors all you want but that doesn't make you an NBA player. Lopez is all foam no beer...for a while last year his brother seemed to be going down the same
route but he came right after Deron arrived.

KLEON · Post #6 » by **KLEON** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:29 pm

Damn!!!!! When I saw this thread I thought the Suns finally traded him

Post #7 » by **rsavaj** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:45 pm

He's a serviceable starting center when healthy. Not that great at rebounding, but our rebounding numbers went way up when we started him next to Amare.

Last year his back injury just nullified him completely...I don't know if he'll ever be productive again, but I think he can be judging by his last game of the season.

I don't think he's a future All-Star at all, but he definitely showed that he CAN be a productive starting center.

RunSunRun · Post #8 » by **RunSunRun** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 9:40 pm

rsavaj wrote:He's a serviceable starting center when healthy. Not that great at rebounding, but our rebounding numbers went way up when we started him next to Amare.

Last year his back injury just nullified him completely...I don't know if he'll ever be productive again, but I think he can be judging by his last game of the season.

I don't think he's a future All-Star at all, but he definitely showed that he CAN be a productive starting center.

Agreed, he is definitely not going to be an all-star or anything, but he can develop into a decent center if healthy. I hope he embraces being the back-up center playing with the second unit for this team, I just hope he doesn't have an ego that makes him think he should be starting over Gortat, because he obviously shouldn't.

DarenG · Post #9 » by **DarenG** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:38 pm

rsavaj wrote:He's a serviceable starting center when healthy. Not that great at rebounding, but our rebounding numbers went way up when we started him next to Amare.

Last year his back injury just nullified him completely...I don't know if he'll ever be productive again, but I think he can be judging by his last game of the season.

I don't think he's a future All-Star at all, but he definitely showed that he CAN be a productive starting center.

He is a career backup on a good team.

Post #10 » by **lilfishi22** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 12:14 am

DarenG wrote:He is a career backup on a good team.

Yup

Biscotti · Post #11 » by **Biscotti** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:28 am

He messed up his back, and came back to early. He has lost some confidence, but the back can be tricky. I am confident that he will come back much stronger this year. Will it matter with Gortat in the picture....doubt it.

nevetsov · Post #12 » by **nevetsov** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:35 am

Yeah I guess you can't really pass judgement until we're assured he's 100% healthy again.

He could come back and be good, he could come back and suck. There isn't really enough info out there yet to suggest one or the other.

Nevertheless, I think the wise thing to do would be to wait until he's healthy to trade him off. At least we have Gortat this year so there's no pressure on him at all. He's mo longer our "x-factor"; he can take all the time he wants to get healthy.

It would be foolish to trade him during his injury, because we'd all kick ourselves if he came back and played well for the other team. Aren't we sick of that yet? The mentality of "gee, (insert player) has sucked since he got injured, we need to trade him now" is completely shortsighted.

Keeping him: low cost/ risk, undetermined reward

Trading him: low cost/ risk, low reward

Anyone with any business acumen whatsoever knows which is the better option.

pidi · Post #13 » by **pidi** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:38 am

Lopez, Robin Lopez.. i think that he is a total bust and we should be happy to get something in return for him.. i would be pleased if we get a. randolph for him.

SunsRback4Good · Post #14 » by **SunsRback4Good** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:39 am

KLEON wrote:Damn!!!!! When I saw this thread I thought the Suns finally traded him

Me 2

Gorilla Warfare · Post #15 » by **Gorilla Warfare** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:31 pm

we should just cut our losses, the horse can't race anymore, time to take him out to the pasture and put him down.

Post #16 » by **rsavaj** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:19 pm

Get Nashty wrote:we should just cut our losses, the horse can't race anymore, time to take him out to the pasture and put him down.

That's what we did with Goran.

JohnVancouver · Post #17 » by **JohnVancouver** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:01 am

rsavaj wrote:
Get Nashty wrote:we should just cut our losses, the horse can't race anymore, time to take him out to the pasture and put him down.

That's what we did with Goran.

You don't really think that, do you? Goran at his best was miles ahead of Lopez - and I'll make pretty much any bet you like that he recovers his form. And that Lopez doesn't

Goran will bea starter in this league

sunskerr · Post #18 » by **sunskerr** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:43 am

Sometimes players just need a change of scenery. Goran certainly did.

Post #19 » by **rsavaj** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 5:33 pm

JohnVancouver wrote:
rsavaj wrote:
Get Nashty wrote:we should just cut our losses, the horse can't race anymore, time to take him out to the pasture and put him down.

That's what we did with Goran.

You don't really think that, do you? Goran at his best was miles ahead of Lopez - and I'll make pretty much any bet you like that he recovers his form. And that Lopez doesn't

Goran will bea starter in this league

Robin's season 2 years ago makes me believe he can be a starter in this league...the only question is whether is back will allow him to get to that level ever again.

Still can't believe we traded Dragic, but sunskerr is right...he did seem like the change of scenery helped him.

JohnVancouver · Post #20 » by **JohnVancouver** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 6:20 pm

This is juts one trade that rankles me long after i feel like I should have gotten over it- Goran was by no means so bad that we should have had to say, no matter what it coast, he has to go. Unless there are things we don;t know - which in any case i can't factor in because ... we don't know them.

Unlike Lopez he did not have an injury that caused his regression. He had a revolving cast of teammates that surely caused some problems - remember the "they're not in the right places" comments? Granted part of his job is to get them in place for the offense to work, but he's still a kid. he could pass, play defense and go on impressive scoring sprees. he cost us a lot of money to acquire but he was relatively cheap to keep.

Moving him cost us a 1st round pick and brought back a scoring only, no defense undersized PG who didn't score that much and (granted, new scenario with not a lot of time to get acclimated for Brooks.)

My personal like for Goran's game aside, this is up there with the KT deal for bad.

Man, I wish they'd sent him to NYC