Brook Lopez is on the move.
The former Milwaukee Bucks center has agreed to a two-year, $18 million contract to join the Los Angeles Clippers, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports.
A 3-and-D center who retooled his game late in his career as one of the league’s best-shooting big men, Lopez adds a valuable skill set to a Clippers team that’s looking to improve its standing in the loaded Western Conference.
Can Lopez impact Clippers like he did Bucks?
Lopez played seven seasons with the Bucks and was a key player as a 70-game starter during Milwaukee’s run to the 2021 NBA championship. A former 20-point scorer, Lopez accepted a secondary scoring role in Milwaukee behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton as a floor spacer on offense while honing his role on defense as an elite shot blocker.
In seven seasons with the Bucks, Lopez averaged 13 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 48.7% from the floor and 35.7% on 4.9 3-point attempts per game. His shooting ability was key in creating space for Antetokounmpo to attack the rim.
The Clippers are surely hoping that Lopez can contribute to similar opportunities for James Harden and Kawhi Leonard to work around the basket.
Twin towers in Los Angeles?
Lopez will join a roster that also features Ivica Zubac, who had the best season of his career at 27 years old last season while averaging 16.8 points, 12.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. The 7-foot center earned second-team All-Defensive Team honors and gave three-time MVP Nikola Jokić trouble in a first-round playoff loss to the Denver Nuggets that went to seven games.
The combination of Lopez and Zubac alongside seven-time All-Defensive Team forward Leonard will provide the Clippers with one of the more intriguing defensive front lines in the NBA.
For Milwaukee, Lopez’s exit signals the loss of another key player ahead of a season in which Damian Lillard will miss most, if not all of the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Questions, meanwhile, continue to swirl around Antetokounmpo’s future with a Bucks team that is not built to compete for a championship.
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