Milwaukee Bucks: Grades for Brook Lopez’s four-year, $52 million deal

Value

After continuing his reinvention toward becoming one of the more premier seven-foot shooting specialists in today’s NBA, Lopez was always in line for a big payday, especially after being signed to the bi-annual exception last offseason.

Of course, Lopez’s value last summer was nowhere near what it was heading into this year’s free agency and with more cap space available to teams around the league, Lopez was going to command plenty of interest around the league.

Saying that, and considering this year’s free agent center class was a robust one, Lopez was still going to stand behind the headlining free agent centers such as Al Horford and Nikola Vucevic and the value of both deals each All-Star agreed to Sunday reflected as much.

Go on down the line and the yearly value of Lopez’s deal even pales, although very slightly, to the yearly salary of journeyman center DeWayne Dedmon, who reportedly agreed to a three-year, $40 million deal with the Sacramento Kings.

On the other side, committing to a four-year deal to a 31-year-old Lopez is a big bet on his future durability, especially when that agreement comes with no options for either party.

Of course, it’s all a part of the negotiations and while Lopez was more than willing to stick around in Milwaukee for the foreseeable future, the Bucks simply couldn’t do without bringing him back at all costs.