The best of Lopez
There’s no better place to start when looking at the numerous positives Lopez brought to the Bucks this year than touching on his sharpshooting prowess, which was critical to building their five-out, read and react offense under head coach Budenholzer and Co.
Lopez experienced a career year shooting the ball from three as he hit on 36.5 percent of the 512 three-point tries he attempted over the course of the regular season.
It’s one thing for Lopez to hit a high volume of threes at a very adequate clip, but it was another to regularly do it from such a deep range as the California native showcased time and time again. For Lopez, 391 of his 512 three-point attempts came from within 25-29 feet and he managed to hit 35.5 percent of those looks over the course of the regular season, per NBA.com/stats.
The result of Lopez routinely setting up shop from beyond the arc and letting it fly resulted in him posting the third-highest offensive rating of all Bucks players this season, behind Eric Bledsoe and Nikola Mirotic.
Switching sides, Lopez was a critical figure behind the fact the Bucks built the league-best defense during the season and in the playoffs. The seven-footer’s protecting of the paint made him well suited for the drop back defensive scheme Coach Bud prized throughout the year.
Because of that, the Bucks allowed the fewest looks in the restricted area of teams around the league and the same went for the 58 field goal percentage their opponents converted from that area of the floor. Lopez’s sturdy rim protection led to him logging a career year as a shot blocker as he posted 2.2 blocks per game this year (it still holds on a per-36 minutes basis as Lopez had 2.8 blocks under that calculation).
Lastly, Lopez was instrumental behind Milwaukee’s rebounding turnaround on the defensive glass. A year after finishing dead last in that department in terms of defensive rebounding percentage, the Bucks came in second in that category, trailing only the Utah Jazz.
Having a big body such as Lopez box out opposing centers and fellow big bodies was a key factor compared to past years for the Bucks and he logged the third-most box outs per game on the defensive end, ranking behind LaMarcus Aldridge and Nikola Vucevic.