Suns Could Get Lopez Back

Robin Lopez (c BrokenSphere/ Wikimedia Commons)

I personally think that the Phoenix Suns can beat the Los Angeles Lakers without Robin Lopez. However if they can get their young big man back for the series it can only help. The Suns are a little light in their front court right now.

Lopez is a seven footer who showed he can score in the NBA this season. His brother (Brook Lopez of the Nets) has been much more accomplished offensively in his career. This season though Robin has caught up a little.

Then he got injured on March 26th, ending his regular season. Now he has an opportunity to make a difference in the playoffs, something his brother would love to be able to do.

This addition to the roster won’t be a series changing event. In fact I doubt he’ll get much more than fifteen minutes per game, but hopefully that is fifteen minutes that Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol have to work on defense. If he can tire them down a little for the fourth quarter of the game then Phoenix gains the advantage.

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Advice For the Nets

When a team is playing poorly it is natural to assume that the only way to turn it around is to blow up the team and start over. Teams usually start out by firing the coach. Then they trade a couple of pieces. Finally they draft players to become the franchise leaders for the next decade.

The Nets started out 0-18 this year after going 34-48 the last two seasons. They have already fired Lawrence Frank, one of the longest tenured NBA coaches. What they do with their roster next will determine how they perform the next couple of years.

My advice is to not panic. They have a couple of really nice pieces to build on in Brook Lopez and Devin Harris. Other players like Josh Boone, Eduardo Najera, Courtney Lee, and Chris Douglas-Roberts can be really nice role players. Yi Jianlian still has potential to be a fifteen to twenty point scorer.

New Jersey will get a very high draft pick this year. That means they will be in the hunt for John Wall. Even if they don’t get the incredible guard, they should get a pretty nice piece. Another piece to add to a young and upcoming team.

Give that team another couple of seasons together building chemistry and I believe the Nets will be a perennial play-off team. People don’t give chemistry enough credit in NBA success. Look at how well some of the national teams play in the Olympics despite having inferior rosters. Teamwork means something and teams need to start realizing it.

Look at  the Clippers teams of the 90’s, they gave up some great talent as they were unable  to keep solid players from leaving. Had Sterling re-signed some of his top talent, I believe they could have been a very good organization. Instead they were constantly losing any chance at consistency.

If the Nets can get Lebron, they should do it. However they probably won’t end up with him, so they should instead concentrate on locking their young players up for the next four or five years. This team can win, I truly believe that.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Chris Kaman, Second Best NBA Center

With Yao Ming out for the year, the NBA has a hole to fill. Dwight Howard is the obvious best center in the league. However figuring out number two is kind of tough. Plain and simple there are not very many choices these days.

Although Andrew Bynum remains the center with the biggest upside, Chris Kaman is the man performing at the highest level (other than Howard). Kaman is averaging 19.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.3 blocks. His team, the LA Clippers, have improved a lot this year.

Another name brought up, Amare Stoudemire, is tough to judge. Simply I do not consider him a center. If I have to put him on the list then he is obviously the second best in the league. However in this article I am going to exclude him.

Just because I have Chris Kaman as my number two center this year doesn’t mean I’m high on him. I think he is very solid, but he is far from a superstar player. Unfortunately the quality of the position is pretty depleted. The days of Patrick Ewing,  Hakeem Olajuwan and Shaq are gone.

With Yao in the mix there are two legitimate star centers in the league, without him there will once again be a mediocre player (Bynum), or a player out of position (Stoudemire) starting in the All-Star game. For a few years it was the East that had to pick someone undeserving (Ilgauskas) . Now it is the West’s turn.

The encouraging news is that there is a pretty decent group of youngsters who could become stars at the center position in the next couple of years. None of them looks like a shoe-in for a Hall-of-Fame career, but hopefully at least one of them makes the jump to superstar.

Marc Gasol- Traditional center. Great FG %. Tough rebounder. Decent FT %. May not have enough “flash” to get to the next level.

Brook Lopez- Best chance at being a star. If his team starts winning he will get a lot of attention.

David Lee- I think he has reached his potential. Solid player, but no star.

Nene- Will he ever be healthy enough to become a star? Another guy that seems like a power forward to me.

Andrew Bogut- Playing with Jennings could make him a star, but probably not. Another guy who is probably already at his prime.

Andrew Bynum- Predicting his ceiling is like guessing a number between one and a hundred. His upside is pretty big though.

Al Jefferson- Very big upside. If he can learn toughness from Rambis and improve his offensive game he could get to the Hall.

Another bad note about the state of NBA centers. There is not one single rookie at the position that I think will be a star. David Andersen of Houston could prove me wrong, but I think that Hasheem Thabeet will be an absolute bust.

Popularity: 16% [?]