Brook Lopez Working to Become a Better Rebounder


Brook Lopez is healthy and motivated, and there’s no reason to believe he’ll continue to be a poor rebounder. Right? Right?! Lopez says that his reputation on the boards will soon change, and the Brooklyn Nets certainly hope that’s the case. Per the NY Daily News: “Deron Williams said Lopez has been unfairly labeled because of circumstances. The Nets have been one of the worst teams in the league since drafting him 10th overall in 2008. ‘He’s been on bad teams and he was hurt all last year. So when those things happen people forget about you people write you off,” Williams said. ‘People start labeling you a certain type of player. Brook has been going strong, he has been going after every rebound in practice. I expect a big year from him.’ The big knock on Lopez has been his rebounding, which dipped to six per game in 2010-11. [Avery] Johnson said he’s pushing Lopez to increase his rebound attempts, which was apparent at Thursday’s training camp session — ‘if you see him in the scrimmage, he went to the offensive glass more times than he did the first season I coached him,’ Johnson said. Lopez said he’s tired of hearing about his rebound numbers, and has been eager to do something about it. ‘(The criticism) has been happening for about two years,’ Lopez said. ‘It was really a focus last year. It was really a focus in preseason. I was making an effort to get to the glass more, get inside and get to glass. Unfortunately I got hurt so I didn’t get a chance to test that out too much. So I’ve constantly been working on it since I got hurt until now.'”