This just goes to show that Lopez is a positive on defense

therealbig3 · Post #1 » by **therealbig3** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 1:50 pm

The biggest criticisms of Lopez have been that he sucks at rebounding and defense...rebounding I can understand, but I always defended Lopez as a defender (no pun intended). I don't think he was great, but he was decent enough, and a good shot blocker, and I think this season so far has shown that even ignoring the offensive side of the ball, he's at least a positive on defense.

Overall, we're an average offensive team so far, which is hard to believe considering our first few games. But we're tied for 15th in the league offensively, with a 102.4 ORating. We're also dead last in DRating, at 112.4.

I decided to look at how we've been doing since the 2nd Hawks game, since that's when it seems that our offense started taking off. Since then, our ORating has been 106.2, which would be 9th in the league. But our DRating has been 116.2 (!), which would be EASILY dead last. And it's obvious why we suck on defense: our front court is filled with crappy defenders who don't know what they're doing, who think that fouling and giving up and-1s is good defense.

Say what you want about Brook, but if he was here, I have a hard time believing we'd be this bad defensively, and with him out, we're way worse than we were last year. So bottom line, I think Brook is an above average defensive player.

Agree, disagree?

vincecarter4pres · Post #2 » by **vincecarter4pres** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 4:43 pm

I agree with your train of thought in general, but I wouldn't label Lopez as a positive defender.

He's about average, probably a little below. Sufficient might be the correct word.

But what we have in place of him and even normally around him is dreadful, so without him it looks that much worse.

Now there is the point to be made that with how bad the defenders are around him it makes him worse by putting way too much pressure on him, literally, not in a mental sense, but as in too much responsibility and too many fouls and having to intentionally avoid contact cause he can't risk being on the bench for long periods.

So, maybe he is a solid or average defender, or even a touch better, but going strictly off the evidence we've see, he's a lot better then people make him out to be because he's not an actually bad defender, and again I would argue he's sufficient which is better then the mediocre label he receives from those trying to be "unbiased".

DarkXaero · Post #3 » by **DarkXaero** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:03 pm

Aren't we a worse rebounding team without him too?

xam2k7 · Post #4 » by **xam2k7** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:41 pm

its the sheer attention a 7'1 265lb dude gets down low in the block that affects a whole game. teams are more worried about boxing him out than okur and petro so now humphries is getting all the attention and rebounding is down. on defense lopez is very long and just having a long 7 foot presence down low changes teams offense. so it really doesnt matter lopez's level of skill on defense down low his presence alone is enough to make the team better defensively.

SteveNets15 · Post #5 » by **SteveNets15** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:45 pm

Lopez had one bad rebounding season.His career average is closer to 8rpg then 6.I think he's to slow to be a really good defender but he is average definitely not bad.

Ronito · Post #6 » by **Ronito** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:53 pm

Well, when your replacements are the worst centers in the league, it kind of changes things.

Okur can't move, though he was somehow driving the ball and actually looked like a living human yesterday. PeTROLL/PetrLOL is himself.

This just shows you how good he is offensively.

deepblueday · Post #7 » by **deepblueday** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:59 pm

He was a very bad rotational defender last year. That said, he's always been a more than solid man defender and he's pretty good at just standing tall under the rim and contesting close shots as well. His ability to score and get to the line also helped out... team's couldn't just run out on us all game long.

Of course he looked worse than he was because none of our perimeter players could keep anyone in front of them, but he sucked in P&R situations as well. I saw legit improvement in those few preseason games, I mean it was preseason, but he seemed much more keyed in to really working at helping and recovering and focusing on being in the right position. Really too bad about the injury... I really think he would be putting in some serious right now on both ends.

DarkXaero · Post #8 » by **DarkXaero** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:59 pm

There were people saying that Okur is a better defender than Lopez. Yea ok :lol:

DarkXaero · Post #9 » by **DarkXaero** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 8:01 pm

deepblueday wrote:He was a very bad rotational defender last year. That said, he's always been a more than solid man defender and he's pretty good at just standing tall under the rim and contesting close shots as well. His ability to score and get to the line also helped out... team's couldn't just run out on us all game long.

Of course he looked worse than he was because none of our perimeter players could keep anyone in front of them, but he sucked in P&R situations as well. I saw legit improvement in those few preseason games, I mean it was preseason, but he seemed much more keyed in to really working at helping and recovering and focusing on being in the right position. Really too bad about the injury... I really think he would be putting in some serious right now on both ends.

I agree with you about the preseason observations. I noticed the same exact thing, a much improved focus on the defensive end, and this is why I was so excited about this season for him. His rebounding and defense had finally seemed to have taken that step up, but then the injury happened.

Jersey Generals · Post #10 » by **Jersey Generals** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 9:39 pm

His rookie year actually made him look like a above average to good defender, you know, when there was an actual team around him, rather than the rag-tag bunch he's had to play with for the past two years. Will he get back to that? No idea, but I doubt it. Will he be as bad as he has been, though? No, I don't think he will.

vincecarter4pres · Post #11 » by **vincecarter4pres** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:05 pm

Yeah, I remember in his rookie year when it was common thought on this board that Brook could be/was a defensive anchor to a good defense. :tooth

624 · Post #12 » by **624** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:02 am

He doesn't have the quickness to be a very good defender, but his huge wingspan/length makes him average at worst.

He's not a liability like any C we currently have.

stephGRAHAMbury · Post #13 » by **stephGRAHAMbury** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:39 am

What gets me is that Lopez's rebounding isn't really any worse than Marc Gasol's yet no one ever calls Marc Gasol out for his work on the boards...

vincecarter4pres · Post #14 » by **vincecarter4pres** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:47 am

stephGRAHAMbury wrote:What gets me is that Lopez's rebounding isn't really any worse than Marc Gasol's yet no one ever calls Marc Gasol out for his work on the boards...

I do. Constantly. And then they clown me up and down the General and Player Comparisons and Trades and Transactions Boards. :lol:

babyjax13 · Post #15 » by **babyjax13** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:59 am

He's a positive compared to Okur, for sure.

therealbig3 · Post #16 » by **therealbig3** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:50 am

DarkXaero wrote:Aren't we a worse rebounding team without him too?

Yep, in terms of defensive rebounding, we were 14th in the league last year...this year, we're 27th.

We've also gone from 16th in TOs to 22nd.

And we are by far the worst team at defending the 3. We allow opponents to shoot 44.8% from 3 against us...the 2nd worst team allows 39.3%. Last year, we allowed 36.4%, which was 19th in the league.

Basically, the loss of Lopez has made us go from a below average defensive team, which was average in certain areas, to being by far the worst defensive team in the league.

And we're turning the ball over more as a result of not having a big man to dump it down low to, and have to rely on guys like Morrow handling the ball, or are instead giving it to guys like Petro and Shelden Williams, who make Kwame Brown look like he has hands of Velcro.