New Jersey Nets center Brook Lopez returned to the court last night after missing nearly two months with a broken foot. Lopez played 22 minutes, scoring nine points and pulling down two boards.
Go ahead, make your Brook Lopez rebound jokes now. The Nets ended up losing the game 92-85, mostly because Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova had 29 points and an incredible 25 rebounds for Milwaukee.
After the game, Lopez told reporters he had a little bit of soreness in his foot, but wasn’t overly concerned about it.
”It felt good,” Lopez said. ”My arch was a little sore, but I think that was just the orthotic. It was just exciting to be out there playing with the guys.”
The result of this game is inconsequential. The Nets are terrible and the Bucks are a fringe playoff team in the East (though they would do well to get a top 10 pick in this year’s draft).
What Lopez’s return is really all about is Brooklyn and Dwight Howard.
It has long been assumed that Lopez would be the center piece going to Orlando in any Dwight Howard trade. Nine points, two rebounds and two assists won’t blow anyone away, but the fact that Lopez is able to come back so quickly after breaking a foot is encouraging. Also encouraging is the fact that he shot eleven free throws in his first game back.
Lopez does have some time to get his legs back under him before any trade might take place. It has been widely reported that Magic GM Otis Smith has little interest in trading Howard before the All-Star game in Orlando this weekend and we still have just under a month to go before the trade deadline.
While there have also been several reports that the Nets are Howard’s first choice, Orlando Magic owner Richard DeVos said he would rather not trade Dwight Howard.
Is Lopez, maybe MarShon Brooks and a couple of draft picks enough to pry Howard away from Orlando? We will find out soon enough.
Coming back and playing well is also important for Lopez because he is a restricted free agent this summer. How he plays the rest of the season will surely dictate if he receives $10 million a year or something like $13 million a year in the market. He is still young, he is still seven-feet tall and can still score 20 points a game pretty easily. Don’t sleep on Brook Lopez.
