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| We'll be seeing Brook Lopez wearing suits the rest of the 2013-14 season, not a uniform |
The dream may not be dead yet, but it's looking more like a nightmare at this point.
When Billy King made the monster trades that brought Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry to the Nets, he envisioned a title contender in Brooklyn. Would anyone blame him? He constructed a roster full of talented All-Stars, future Hall-of-Famers, and productive role players galore. Seemingly, only injuries could deter such a dream team from being halfway decent.
Well, that assumption was only partly correct. Injuries have plagued the Nets to an incredible degree in recent years, most notably with Deron Williams and Brook Lopez, whose chronic foot and ankle problems have finally cost him what is left of the 2013-14 campaign. However, age, lack of chemistry, poor coaching, and inconsistent effort have also been major reasons as to why the Nets are somehow 9-17 after 26 games this year.
To be fair, in an absurdly weak Eastern Conference, the Nets are just two games out of the 8th seed and are 2.5 behind the Celtics for 1st place in the Atlantic Division. Is it likely for the badly-handicapped Nets to make the playoffs? I wouldn't go that far, but is it possible? Yes. Definitely yes.
Brooklyn still has Deron, Joe, a rejuvenated Pierce, KG, Blatche, Alan Anderson, and you get the point. But even if they are lucky enough to reach the postseason, Jason Kidd's squad just doesn't have enough size–without Lopez–to be able to compete with the Pacers and Heat. Sure they can beat the likes of the Hawks and Celtics, but not the East's elite.
Unfortunately, Billy King's Brooklyn dream wasn't to win a terrible Atlantic Division, beat a mediocre opponent in the 1st round of the playoffs, and then get smoked by a far-superior Indiana or Miami team without advancing any further. It was to dominate the division, roll through the early playoff round, and closely compete and hopefully beat teams of the Pacers' and Heat's ilk, eventually advancing to the NBA Finals for a shot at league history.
As evidenced by Brooklyn's three best wins this season (over Memphis, Miami, and the Clippers) all coming with Brook Lopez on the court, the Nets are a much more intimidating and hard-to-stop team when Brook is healthy. Not many NBA teams can defend the 7-foot monster that Brook is without allowing him to score a lot of points. Now that Brook is sidelined, the Nets don't have the same interior presence, which is something even Blatche, KG, Mason Plumlee, and Reggie Evans can't make up.
The sky may not be completely falling, though. Brooklyn still has a lot of talented players left on its roster that should be enough to bring the team back to around the .500 mark in the upcoming weeks and months. Still, though, the loss of Lopez serves to both greatly demoralize a team relying on him to be a star and greatly diminish the starpower available for a team that's already trying to dig itself out a massive season-opening hole.
What we know for sure is that Brook Lopez, even at the young age of 25 years old, is officially one of those "injury-prone" guys now. Players like Andrew Bynum, Andrew Bogut, Yao Ming, Michael Redd are all either current or former players with tons of talent who were/are always put in the category of players who "are good, if they can stay healthy." Now, Brook is a card-carrying member of that group and probably will never been the same player again. He's not going to shrink or forget how to shoot, but he will forever need to play with a level of caution–due to his foot–that is never good for a center.
The good news is that the constant foot injuries shouldn't have a major effect on Brook's accurate 10-18 foot jumpers, which he has improved greatly this season. The aspect of his game to be most affected by the broken foot will be his highly-physical and methodical drives through the lane to the hoop, when Brook get absolutely mauled by defenders, often without a foul called (like last night). He scores a lot of points in that fashion, and will have to adapt his play to suit the limitations of his body.
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