With Nets legend Jason Kidd recently hired as the team’s head coach, the draft set to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday night and free agency beginning next week, it has been an exciting few weeks for the franchise.
But the excitement level around the Nets took a bit of a hit yesterday when the team announced All-Star center Brook Lopez had undergone surgery to replace a bent screw in his surgically repaired right foot following the end of this past season.
It marks the third time that Lopez has had a surgical procedure on that foot in the last 18 months, going back to when he originally injured it during the second preseason game against the Knicks just before the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season.
“In the X-rays they took [during Lopez’s postseason physical examination], they noticed the screw was bent, so just being proactive, they took it out,” Nets general manager Billy King said at the team’s practice facility yesterday. “He’ll be back in August. He was pain-free, so he didn’t even notice it was bentuntil the X-rays were taken.”
King said Lopez, who is in a walking boot after the procedure was performed at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, is healing properly and on schedule, and made it clear he wasn’t worried about any long-term ramifications from yet another procedure being done to his star center’s right foot.
“They just took [the bent screw] out and put another one in,” King said.
The general manager also said Lopez’s latest issue with his right foot would have no bearing on the team’s strategy entering the NBA Draft.
“It’s not a concern at all,” King said. “We know the guys we want to have, and Brook Lopez is our starter, so I’m not concerned at all.”
This is the fourth time Lopez has had an issue with his right foot. After undergoing the initial surgery for that first injury in December 2011, he re-injured the foot in Charlotte in March 2012 in just his fifth game of the season before being shut down for the remainder of the year. Then, after he returned healthy for the start of last season, Lopez sat out for seven games when he suffered a mild sprain on the top of his foot in Boston on Nov. 28.
That injury was deemed unrelated to anything Lopez had experienced previously, and though he missed seven games recovering from it, Lopez had no subsequent health issues throughout the rest of the season.
In addition to staying healthy, Lopez was incredibly productive, putting together his best season as a pro. He led all NBA centers in scoring with 19.4 points per game — to go along with 6.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks — and increased those numbers to 22.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in the Nets’ loss to the Bulls in seven games in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Lopez also made his first All-Star Game appearance.
King also confirmed Lopez would have been selected to participate in Team USA’s minicamp next month in Las Vegas had he not needed to have the screw replaced. Lopez is likely to be a candidate to be part of Team USA’s entry in the FIBA World Cup in Spain in September 2014.