Free Agent B/R: Brook Lopez Is a Realistic Blazers Free-Agent Target

https://www.blazersedge.com/platfor...rook-lopez-trail-blazers-2018-nba-free-agency

Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report sees the other Lopez brother as a fit in Portland — if Jusuf Nurkic is gone.



The Portland Trail Blazers’ plan in NBA Free Agency is sure to be centered on expected restricted free agent Jusuf Nurkic. The big man could command a big offer sheet in free agency that puts a further stranglehold on Portland’s payroll. If the Blazers elect to not match a huge offer sheet, they’ll likely look for another center to step into the starting role if they’re resigned to Ed Davis (a free agent himself) and Zach Collinscoming off the bench for another year.

With a Nurkic-less Blazers team, Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report sees Brook Lopez as a possible replacement:

Lopez would offer Portland a new offensive dimension, as the current core has never played with a reliable outside threat at the center spot. Mason Plumlee preceded Nurkic, and neither had range beyond the restricted area.

Lopez, an unrestricted free agent who probably doesn’t figure into the Los Angeles Lakers’ future plans, abruptly became a long-range threat in 2016-17. He converted 34.6 percent of a whopping 387 attempts that year. He hit 34.5 percent of his 325 attempts this past season in L.A.

However, Lopez would have to be willing to take a pay cut in order to make a move work:

Defensively limited and liable to get played off the floor against smaller, more versatile opponents, Lopez is still an offensive weapon who should open up more room for Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. If he’s willing to take the taxpayer’s MLE, Lopez is a fine fit.
Lopez averaged 13 points and four rebounds per game last season. His brother, Robin, played for the Blazers from 2013-15.

 

What most writers (and you BGD) fail to see is that we have money to sign Nurkic but not money to sign a replacement for over the taxpaper MLE (and yes I see they mentioned it this time but Lopez is unlikely to take that low of a deal in my opinion and the guy is starting to break down). Nurkic is on the way up and you want guys who are on their way down, instead?

 

"Trading" Nurkic for Lopez would be one of the worst moves in Blazers history.

In my opinion.

 

Don't know if it would be one of the worst moves but it would certainly be a bad move.

 

I'd rather have Robin back...

 

I like Robin, I like Brook but I like Nurk best.

 

For now and for the future. It would be worse than Jermaine for Davis.

In my opinion

 

Maybe. But, what if the NBA game has really changed and the big lumbering center is a thing of the past because they can't guard the quicker stretch 5's of the league. If that is true, would you rather pay $15M/year for a center who likes to be in the lane or $6M/year (or whatever the MLE is) for a center who can open up the middle by consistently hitting threes?

Honestly, I like Nurk's personality, but I'm afraid he is in the wrong era. I'm not sure we shouldn't just let him walk and NOT sign Lopez either. If the game has really changed that much then Harkless/Aminu/Collins should be your front line, and hope they either improve or you can replace one or more of them through the draft with other 3D players.

 

But not as bad as Moses Malone for a future 1st round pick (Rick Robey, although we did parlay that pick into Johnny Davis and Mychal Thompson...).

BNM

 

I think the complete opposite. Portland would likely never be able to out small ball teams like GS and Houston over the next couple years so I'd try to beat them with a more traditional lineup. Besides Nurk actually has decent athleticism for how big he is. He's not a full scale plodder.

 

Oh, god. You had to remind me

 

And I'd expect his outside shot to improve. It's not bad now (if he's left open). It's his lackadaisical free throws that bug me

 

That certainly is a possibility, but before we get to GS and Houston, we need to get past NO. Nurk didn't looks amazing in that series. I have a feeling Blazers are going to have to go all in with Nurk because they really don't have any other options. Maybe if he gets a bit quicker on the PnR and they can hammer teams more it might work. It sure seems like playing a bruising center against a small ball team should balance things out, but in reality it hasn't yet.

 

While I agree with the basic premise that the game has changed, I disagree with the premise that Nurk is ill suited to today's NBA.

We saw this year what a huge difference he made in our team defense, and that's where most "traditional" big men get run off the floor when other teams go small. If you only consider size and athleticism, Plumlee, who is much more athletic, much faster and has a much higher motor should be the better defender for today's small ball line ups, but in practice, the exact opposite is true.

Nurk uses his size, both length and width, to completely swallow up the pick and roll. He crowds the screener, but spreads out and gets wide to also contain the dribbler coming off the screen. He basically uses his size to contain both the screener and the ball handler at the point of attack. With Plumlee, because his narrow shoulders and shorter arms, the ball handler was constantly just blowing past him for uncontested layups. Nurk, with his much wider base and longer arms, prevents that from happening, while also remaining in contact with the screener to prevent him an easy roll to the basket.

With his length and the way he crowds the screener, Nurk also does a better job of contesting pull up jumper shots off the screen, something Plumlee is incapable of doing with his much shorter arms. Plumlee actually blocks a lot more shots than Nurk, but his blocks are almost all in the form of weakside help, where he uses his quickness as a help defender to surprise a lot of opponents from the side or from behind. Granted, they are still blocks and count for something, but you can't block every shot, especially against the pick and roll. Where Nurk is superior is that, while he doesn't get as many blocks, he contests a LOT more shots in the pick and roll. He crowds the screener and overplays the shooter's strong hand coming off the screen. If the ball handler pulls up for a jumper, Nurk may not block the shot, but he gets his hand up and contests the shot. Plumlee, with his short arms and narrow shoulders simply can't present the same obstacle as a 7'1" Bosnian beast.

Defensively, I REALLY want to see what a line up of Nurk, Collins and Harkless can do. That's a whole lot of length, but it's also three VERY good pick and roll defenders. Collins earned a spot in the rotation due to his defense, something that's rare for a rookie 7-footer in today's NBA. Like Nurk, Collins is an excellent pick and roll defender that does a good job containing the ball handler coming off the screen. He has good lateral quickness and length, but what makes him a good defender is his solid fundamentals, good instincts and aggressive nature.

Everyone remembers the injuries to CP3 and Blake Griffin back in the 2016 playoffs, but what most people seem to have forgotten was the tide of that series had already shifted in Game 3, and one of the biggest reasons was Terry started switching Moe onto CP3. Moe has the length and lateral quickness to bother small, quick point guards. He not only shot down CP3's scoring, his height and length also made it much harder for CP3 to locate and deliver to the ball to his teammates. In Game 3 of that series, POR held a 100% healthy Cliiper team to 88 points. In Game 4, the Blazers had led the entire game, were up 9 when the injuries happened. The series was going back to Los Angeles tied 2 game apiece, with, or without the injuries. Would teh Blazers have still won the series without the injuries? It's impossible to tell, but switching Moe onto CP3 definitely swung the momentum in Portland's favor even before the injuries.

With all three of Nurk, Collins and Moe being excellent pick and roll defenders and able to contain smaller ball handlers coming off screens, there is really no reason to pull them and "go small" just because the other team does. In fact, when other teams go small, we should go big and punish them for doing so. This is when Nurk can go total beast mode.

This season, especially early in the year, Dame (and Terry) seemed dead set on posting up Nurk early and force feeding him on the low block. This lead to a lot of wild forced shots and turnovers as Nurk tended to play too fast for fear of getting his shot blocked by his equally large starting center counterpart. We should do the exact opposite. When the other team starts a big center, use Nurk in the high post for setting screens and also as a distributor to find the cutting Harkless or the open Collins for the corner 3. Back during Nurk fever, when Terry didn't have time to develop specific plays for Nurk, that's exactly how Nurk was used and he thrived, averaging 3.2 assists per game.

Then when the other team goes small, let Nurk go absolute beast mode against the Draymond Green and PJ Tucker small ball 5s of the world. Nurk, with a smaller defender on him is nearly unstoppable. He slows down and simply overpowers them.

Of course, this depends on Collins continuing to develop, and Moe becoming a lot more consistent. It's no coincidence the team had their 13-game winning streak when Moe decided to show up and be "good" Moe. If he can play close to that level, and Collins can grow into an upgrade over Aminu at both ends of the floor, I see absolutely no reason to not resign Nurk, in fact, I think it's imperative.

BNM

 

They were tall enough to climb over the wall.

BNM

 

I think it is more the way he is used than him not looking amazing. In game 4 we went to him several plays in a row and he absolutely abused them. They had no answer. I know it was a small sample size but it did show that he wasn't useless like people thought in that series.