{"id":734876,"date":"2026-06-13T22:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T22:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/734876\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T22:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T22:55:09","slug":"my-best-is-still-to-come-lopez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/734876\/","title":{"rendered":"‘My best is still to come’: Lopez"},"content":{"rendered":"

With every passing day, the NBA dream of NBL Next Star Karim Lopez gets closer.<\/p>\n

The Mexican forward, who helped the New Zealand Breakers win the Hungry Jack\u2019s NBL26 Ignite Cup, is currently working out with numerous NBA teams, following a strong Draft Combine in Chicago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the most recent mock Draft by Yahoo Sports\u2019 Kevin O\u2019Connor, the 19-year-old, who has reportedly been invited to the Draft’s Green Room<\/a>, is slated to be selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 12th pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cLopez checks a lot of boxes with his excellent physical tools, hard-nosed approach, well-rounded ability to defend multiple positions and handle the ball, and blossoming shot,\u201d O\u2019Connor said via Yahoo Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cLopez has all the requisite skills to enhance a star teammate as a key piece on a winning team.\u201d<\/p>\n

While O\u2019Connor and numerous other draft experts are intrigued by Lopez\u2019s skillset, the Next Star explained that there is still plenty of growth in his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the opportunity to show it a little bit more this last year than the first one [with New Zealand],\u201d Lopez said on the Kevin O\u2019Connor Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always plenty of stuff I haven\u2019t fully shown yet, having only shown a few flashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs years continue to go by, I\u2019m confident those flashes can be more consistent at the NBA level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely don\u2019t think you\u2019ve seen [the best of me yet].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Further to that, while watching the current NBA Playoffs, Lopez, who says the \u2018NBA has always been the dream\u2019, is confident he can contribute to a team\u2019s success in the post-season.<\/p>\n

\u201c[A lot] of the game right now is about the speed, physicality and size and I believe I can bring all three of those to any team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn transition, it\u2019s about making quick reads and [relying on] your IQ as a player, which I feel [are my strengths].<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I feel like I could be plugged into any team in the Playoffs right now, play a role and help them win.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to the NBA Draft, which will be held in Brooklyn on June 23 and 24, Lopez has drawn comparisons to a Hall of Famer, with ESPN\u2019s Marc J. Spears last month saying that he has \u201cScottie Pippen kind of things to him”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This comes after Lopez averaged 11.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game across the Hungry Jack\u2019s NBL26 season, while shooting 49 per cent from the field and committing just 1.5 turnovers per game.<\/p>\n

The Next Stars program has seen six players drafted in the first round across the last six NBA drafts, including LaMelo Ball (2020), Josh Giddey (2021), Ousmane Dieng (2022) and Alex Sarr (2024), all being selected inside the lottery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With every passing day, the NBA dream of NBL Next Star Karim Lopez gets closer. The Mexican forward,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-734876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}