The Nets, based in both New Jersey and Brooklyn, have played a combined 230 regular season games in the last three seasons. Brook Lopez, the Nets’ star center whose foot and ankle injuries limited him to just 17 games during the 2013-14 season, has played just 96 of those 230 games. That accounts to just less than 42 percent of possible games.
When a team’s center, and by most measures, best player, plays significantly less than half of said team’s games, it probably isn’t going to be very easy for that team to succeed.
In the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, in which Lopez played just five games, the Nets went just 22-44, winning just a third of their games and missing the playoffs by a lot. The next year, Lopez played almost a full season (74 games) and was great in the playoffs, even though his team fell to the Bulls in a seven-game first round series. Last season, he only appeared in 17 contests, and could only watch on the bench as the Miami Heat eliminated the Nets in the second round of the postseason.
Clearly, this is a team that needs Brook healthy and on the floor, establishing a vaunted offensive and defensive presence down low. According to Brooklyn general manager Billy King, there aren’t going to be any restrictions on Lopez, meaning that he’s as healthy as he can be, which is great, great news. This doesn’t mean that he won’t get randomly-placed off games throughout the year, but it does mean he’s at or near 100 percent right now.
Also, with the news that he has lost some weight, Brook appears to be at peak physical shape for the season to begin (almost two months away now). That’s what new Nets coach Lionel Hollins wants to hear, as his offensive system will presumably center around Brook’s great scoring ability. With Paul Pierce, Shaun Livingston, Andray Blatche, and others now on other teams (or in Andray’s case, free agency), Brooklyn is going to look a lot different this year than last.
However, last year, Lopez played in just over 1/5 of his team’s games, so he certainly didn’t play a big role. In the 2013-14 campaign, Jason Kidd’s offense centered around the guards, as in Deron Williams, Livingston, and Joe Johnson. Pierce and Kevin Garnett, who rounded out the starting lineup most times, were complimentary to the backcourt options.
Now, that changes. Deron played a bit better towards the end of the year, but clearly isn’t the same player he used to be. Livingston and Pierce are gone. Joe Johnson is still a dynamic shooter and scorer, but isn’t the traditional offensive leader. And finally, Kevin Garnett is 38 years old, so he’s hardly the offensive cornerstone he used to be.
Put all this together, and it tells you that how Brook Lopez plays this upcoming season is going to very important for how well the Nets do. In a vastly-improved Eastern Conference–with the Cavaliers having LeBron and Kevin Love and the Bulls getting Derrick Rose back from injury–Brooklyn has been left back in the dust a little bit with its relatively underwhelming offseason.
Sure, the additions of Jarrett Jack, Bojan Bogdanovic, Sergey Karasev, Markel Brown, and even Cory Jefferson could bring some extra value to the team, but it’s doubtful all of them together can make up what was lost by the departures of Livingston, Pierce, and Blatche. However, the return of a healthy and hopefully improved Brook Lopez can make Nets fans forget about the negatives of the summer.
Unfortunately, Brook is going to be thrown into the proverbial fire almost right away when the season starts. He’ll have to assume the heaviest workload amongst Nets players as he’ll have to bang around down low with the league’s other big players in order to rebound, block shots, and protect the basket from penetration. That’s a physically-demanding proposition for someone who has had his fair share of ankle and foot problems in just the last three years.
The loss of weight should help with that, but until he gets out there and plays in an actual game, nothing can be known regarding his physical stamina and wherewithal. All indications point to another monster season for Brook, who at times seems just a killer mentality away from being the NBA’s most dominant, two-way center.
If he can absorb the offensive (and defensive) load to be shouldered on him, then I have no doubt that Brook Lopez can easily lead the Nets back to the playoffs, where they could possibly make some noise. However, if he underperforms and can’t live up–at all–to his expectations as a top notch center, then Brooklyn is in for a lot of trouble, and will disappoint greatly in Lionel Hollins’ inaugural season as coach.
The supporting pieces matter, of course, but at the end of the day, the NBA is a league of stars, and the Nets need their best overall player to play like a star. He was basically invisible, due to injury, last season and it ended up costing the Nets a possible Eastern Conference Finals appearance. That cannot happen again.
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