NCAA Basketball: Best player on eastern semifinal 2019 NBA playoff teams
By Alex Weber
Milwaukee Bucks – Brook Lopez
After analyzing college stats from the Bucks’ former college studs, Lopez emerged as the clearcut best college player from Milwaukee. In just two seasons, Lopez vacuumed in a glut of accolades in addition to leading the Stanford Cardinal to its highest AP Ranking in the past 15 seasons. His freshman year he earned Pac-12 All-Freshman recognition before upgrading to All-Conference as a sophomore, where he notched 19.3 points and 8.2 points per game.
Since his days in Palo Alto, Lopez has undergone a complete reimagining on the basketball court. In college, Brook dominated the paint. His finishing moves from the post, ability to protect the rim, and ferocity on the glass made Lopez an anchor in the paint and a stationary yet abundant scorer from close range. Few college centers possessed the toughness or mere physical attributes to contest Lopez. At 7-foot and 260 pounds with magnificent touch around the basket, Lopez was both an unstoppable force and an immovable object. His foes paid dearly.
Eleven years later, Lopez is a crucial chess piece in grandmaster Mike Budenholzer’s revamped pace-heavy, three-happy modern basketball system centered around his supernova, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Lopez fills in where necessary as a center in Bud’s order: a floor spacing spot-up big man. Lopez is now attempting over 6 three-pointers per game for Milwaukee. For reference, he took just six such shots in his final year at Stanford. Yes, you read that correctly: Lopez is taking more threes per game in 2019 than he did in the entirety of his final college season.
That’s basketball photosynthesis in this era of the NBA: A big bodied center with ample defensive upside and an impressive free throw stroke (78.9% as a sophomore) is coerced into perching on the perimeter launching threes and spacing the floor for the team’s most dynamic playmakers; in this case, the Greek Freak. On the offensive end, Lopez shares a slim amount of DNA with the version of him which entered the league over a decade ago. Nonetheless, he was a star in college and is now the starting center of a Finals contender. Despite the transformation, he remains incredibly effective.