Marc Stein: Milwaukee Bucks intend to pursue Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez
In a cap clearing move, the Milwaukee Bucks traded away forward Ersan lyasova to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Caron Butler and Shawne Williams. The Bucks are expected to waive both players to clear up cap space for this summer.
The Milwaukee Bucks intend to pursue Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez this summer, according to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein. Lopez is expected to opt-out of the final year of his contract.
“League sources say the Bucks want a proven center in free agency if they can score one, and have pinpointed two kinds of former All-Stars — Dallas’ Tyson Chandler and Brooklyn’s Brook Lopez — as targets for the top of their wish list.
Bucks coach Jason Kidd knows both of them well, having played alongside Chandler in both Dallas and New York and having coached Lopez with the Nets. And word is that Milwaukee intends to chase both hard come July 1 in hopes of emerging as a serious contender for at least one of them.”
Brooklyn Nets general manager Billy King stated that retaining Lopez and Thaddeus Young is the team’s number one priority this offseason. If Lopez opts out, he will be an unrestricted free agent, and free to sign with any team of his choosing. While the Nets retain his Bird rights, – meaning that the team can offer him more money and a longer contract – doing so would put the team in the position to have to pay the dreaded repeater tax.
Lopez, 27, averaged 17.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game. He also had a PER of 22.76, which ranked 3rd among centers in the NBA.
What readers said at the time
3 replies came in under this piece in 2015, and they are kept here as they were written — the readers’ words, not ours, spelling and all. The thread is closed; the desk does not take new comments.
jerry2513 June 2015
Doesn’t make a lot of sense since Kidd didn’t like Lopez’ style of play with Brooklyn.
Don’t forget that his Nets didn’t start to win until Brook was injured, and he was forced to go with “small ball”.Now it may be that Kidd has no other options out there, but I wouldn’t expect it to be their preferred choice. Nets of course can offer Brook more money and he’d probably prefer to stay in the New York area.
Jack Jameson14 June 2015
I personally agree that Lopez will opt out, but am extremely weary of throwing a bunch of money at a center who can’t stay on the court.
When healthy Lopez is among the best big men in the NBA, but he can’t seem to stay on the floor and that is disappointing to me, which is why I am surprised that Jason Kidd is looking at him.
Could end up being a positive if Lopez were to leave, but then again maybe not.
Ravi Shah14 June 2015
As bad as throwing money at an injury-prone big man sounds, I think the Nets really have no option. If they let him walk, the Nets will not be able to spend as much money on other free-agent.