I started to regain my faith in Greg this season. However, I'd trade him for Brook Lopez without blinking. NJ, ONTH, would tell KP to go **** himself. Lopez is a beast.
Teams are kicking themselves for passing on him. A frontcourt of Lopez/Jefferson would have been scary. NY could have started their rebuilding the right way with a franchise center instead of the Hedo-lite they drafted. Joe Alexander was taken over Brook. Joe Alexander!
Thabeet looks like a Thabust. He seriously looks like Boumtje-Boumtje so far. His game is not translating over to the pros like how I imagined it would.
Living in NY I get to see a lot of the Nets, and while Lopez is certainly good, the stark contrast in how that team looks for him compared to how we just ignore Greg and the variety of plays that have him basically just catch the ball 3 feet from the basket and lay it in is so very aggravating. He's got range, which helps him get more frequent looks than Greg, but really he's basically a true center version of Lamarcus in terms of his skill set. And yet him and Devin Harris run the PnR so incredibly efficiently I can't help but wonder why we can't even see a little bit of this with either Greg or LA. If more than a handful of LMA's designed plays weren't just the same old 17ft jumpers he'd be so much more respected around the league, and seeing Greg in a competent PnR where the guard actually looks to set him up moving to the basket would be a godsend.
Lopez is Bynum-esque. Both are not especially athletic, fundamentally sound, solid young centers. Like Brad Daugherty back in the day. Greg is closer to a Moses Malone type. He's much stronger and much more athletic. He is already a more valuable player. Shame, shame, SHAME on anyone who would consider trading him for Lopez. Let's see you say that in a couple of years.
Tell you who has impressed me in preseason and the first game: Russell Westbrook! Maybe you CAN learn to be a PG. There's hope for Bayless yet.
