With the Nets season officially in the books, it’s time to look back at the year that was. We’ll look back at a different player each weekday, before wrapping up with the coaching staff and front office. Next up: Brook Lopez
Regular season stats: Averaged 20.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.5 steals, 1.8 blocks per game. Shot 56.3 percent from the field, 0 percent from 3-point range, 81.7 percent from the foul line in 31.4 minutes per game over in 17 games (17 starts).
Playoff stats: Did not play due to injury.
Contractual status: Owed $15,719,063 for the 2014-15 season; has player option for the 2015-16 season.
Season recap
The Nets envisioned building their team this season around Lopez, the 7-foot center coming off the best season of his career. After an injury-plagued 2011-12 season, Lopez finished with averages of 19.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in 2012-13, shooting 52 percent in 74 games to make his first All-Star team and stamp himself as arguably the NBA’s best scoring big man while also improving his defense.
And, even while the Nets struggled through the opening couple months of this season, Lopez lived up to his end of the bargain. He showed further improvement defensively, using his massive frame to make shooters think twice when they drove to the rim while providing the same production offensively, averaging 20.7 points on 56 percent shooting.
But everything changed in the fourth quarter of a Dec. 20 game in Philadelphia, when Lopez got tangled up with 76ers forward Thaddeus Young and fell awkwardly to the ground.
Though Lopez finished the game — a 121-120 overtime loss to the hapless Sixers — he went in for an X-ray on his right foot after the game. After suffering previous foot injuries, he didn’t need someone to tell him there was something wrong with the pictures.
“They didn’t even have to tell me,” Lopez said in February in his first sitdown with reporters after his injury. “I’ve seen enough before to recognize that line on the X-ray.”
“That line” was a fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his troublesome right foot, an injury that required season-ending surgery. The procedure was far more complicated than simply repairing the fracture.
“With this procedure, we both fixed the broken bone (fifth metatarsal) in Brook’s right foot and repositioned another bone, so that his sole of his foot will bear weight more evenly than before,” said team medical director Dr. Riley Williams III, one of three doctors who performed the operation, in a statement. “The repositioning portion of the surgery lessens the stress on the fractured bone, and decreases the likelihood of re-injury in the future.”
Lopez later had an additional surgery on his left ankle, tightening the lateral ankle ligaments and repairing a torn tendon he initially suffered on Nov. 15. He spent the rest of the regular season and playoffs slowly rehabilitating. He was with the team throughout its postseason run, and even did some standstill shooting drills.
Outlook for next season
The Nets have plenty of question marks heading into the offseason – the health of Deron Williams, the contractual status of Paul Pierce and Shaun Livingston, whether or not Kevin Garnett will return – but none come close to being as important as the long-term health of Lopez.
The surgery Lopez underwent to alleviate the repeated issues he’s had with his right foot was serious, and Nets general manager pointed to former Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas as a terrific success story in a similar situation. Ilgauskas is on one side of the spectrum – having played 11 seasons after undergoing his surgery – and Yao Ming is on the other, playing just five regular-season games after undergoing his own complicated foot surgery before being forced to retire.
If Lopez’s situation mirrors that of Ilgauskas, he has a chance to be the kind of long-term franchise mainstay he looked to be heading into last season, when he seemed well on his way to re-writing the Nets’ record book.
Given the team’s lack of draft picks, the Nets were counting on Lopez – who just turned 26 in April – to be the anchor in the middle over the next several seasons. Now, as he recovers from his surgeries, his long-term status with the organization, as well as in the NBA, will be determined by how his right foot responds.
Coming Monday: Paul Pierce