I know what you’re thinking right now. “21 points for Brook Lopez? That means he must have hit seven threes! Oh boy, I’d better watch this video straight away!”. Reasonable thoughts for sure, although I question the mental capacity of someone who uses the phrase “straight away” instead of “right away”. But I have to inform you, that this Lopez highlight video is not just him hitting seven straight triples. And you know what? I’m not even sorry about it.
As much as I love Lopez hanging out 15 feet behind the arc and taking all the threes he wants, I still have an apprecation for his inside game. An inside game that, I earnestly believe, is being severely marginalized on the Bucks. Remember, he was a 20 ppg scorer doing his mix of rim-runs, post-ups, and a few midrange jumpers. And it’s not like he doesn’t have those skills. It’s just now the skills he uses have to mesh with Giannis, which means him getting his big booty out of the way as much as possible while still being a threat. Which, for him, means that he’s still standing on the court and not out of bounds.
Tonight, we got a little taste of that old Lopez. And it was great to see. Still no post-ups, but we did see a couple pick-and-rolls! Giannis is great, but he almost literally cannot run a pick-and-roll. Tony Snell is better than him at it, I swear. At least more willing. Lopez seems really happy with his current role (at least, he’s not crying on the bench like in his stint with the Lakers), but if I were him, I’d talk to Budenholzer and see if stuff like this couldn’t happen a little more often.