Brook Lopez Enhancing his Defense

Brook Lopez has grown over the years to become a near irreplaceable part of the Nets offense. Now, it looks as if he plans on making it tougher for others to bash his defense.

Brook Lopez in general was too slow to become a good defender. He couldn't defend the pick and roll, his missed defensive assignments and just overall didn't excel in anything defensively. This year, he's come in looking to prove his doubters wrong.

In the last 22 games, Lopez has recorded at least one block in 20 for them as well as average 2.1 blocks per game, good for seventh best in the league. To counter, several people claim that blocks do not equate to good defense. Let's compare Lopez's defensive value on the Nets compared to Dwight Howard for this season.

According to 82games, the #Nets have a better defensive points per 100 with Lopez (104.1) on the court than the Lakers do with Dwight Howard (106.8). Those numbers don't show the whole story because that's a team effort. However, let's take both of their Net On/Off Defensive per 100 numbers. Brook Lopez's is -4.9 while Dwight Howard's is -3.4.

Lopez also has been holding his opponents to just a 16.5 PER, while he boasts one at around 25.

This is not to say that Lopez has all of the sudden become an amazing defender but he's taken tremendous strides in improving that area. He has even acknowledged it himself.

"It's something I've been focusing on improving on," Lopez said after the latest Knicks game. "I want to be there to help my guys. I feel like I missed a few assignments, especially on Carmelo when he was in the post in the first half, and I wanted to come out in the second half and be more aggressive."

Joe Johnson chipped in with praise as well.

"We are a tough team when he's blocking shots and being that great low-post presence that we need," Joe Johnson said. "We are a tough team to beat."

Lopez's improvements have not gone unnoticed, and it could potentially land him a spot on the All-Star team. The team has flourished with Lopez on the floor. In the games he missed, the lack of a post presence was almost mocking fans.


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