LAS VEGAS \u2014 Brook Lopez has never played for the Clippers.<\/p>\n
Yet his free agent signing with them this summer is a sort of homecoming, with multiple ties between the Southern California native and the Clippers. That starts with team president Lawrence Frank.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was my coach way back when in 2008 with the New Jersey Nets,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cSo it\u2019s definitely a full circle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez was a hot name early in free agency, linked to the Lakers (a team he did play for in the past), the Rockets, and others, but he signed a two-year, $17.9 million contract to back up Ivica Zubac with the Clippers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything happened pretty fast, but looking at my options, I was just thrilled the Clippers reached out and were one of them,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cYou know, they\u2019ve been a great team for quite a while now. They have a ton of great players, obviously Hall of Famers, all sorts of great young players. I got Zuby [Ivica Zubac]. And there\u2019s just a great chance to win a championship here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among Lopez\u2019s connections with the Clippers is Zubac \u2014 they were teammates on the Lakers a decade ago. Look for Tyronn Lue, who likes big lineups, to experiment with playing Lopez and Zuback together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we complement each other extremely well,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cObviously, we\u2019ll be very big. I think we\u2019d be great defensively, just dominating the paint, sealing the paint off. Then offensively, we complement each other there as well, spread the floor for him, give him all the room in the paint for them to go wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez\u2019s primary role with the Clippers will be as a backup big behind Zubac, but because of his floor spacing shooting \u2014 37.3% from beyond the arc on 4.7 attempts a game last season \u2014 he\u2019s going to find himself in a lot of different lineups and roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see. I\u2019m capable of a lot of stuff,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cObviously, I\u2019m comfortable spreading the floor. I\u2019m comfortable being in the post. I love defending, I love being anchor on defense. Bottom line, I just want to help the team win. Whatever they need me to do, whatever they see fit for my role, I\u2019m going to be working as hard as possible to be great at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
One teammate Lopez thinks there will be fast chemistry with is James Harden \u2014 Lopez knows where his points will come from.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to get as many pick-and-rolls with him as possible,\u201d Lopez said with a laugh. \u201cJust get in that pocket. I know he\u2019s going to make something good out there.\u201d
The other role Lopez will play with the Clippers is that of a mentor.<\/p>\n
The Clippers have a few young players, most notably No. 30 pick Yanic Konan Niederhauser, a center from Switzerland via Penn State, a 6’10 \u201ccenter who has moved well and shown flashes at Summer League.<\/p>\n
Lopez is excited about being a veteran mentor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fortunate to play with a lot of great players throughout my career: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Giannis [Antetokounmpo], Vince Carter. I can keep going down the line, but particularly KG was someone I was fortunate to play with when I was a younger player in this league and he helped mold me to the player I am today.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think it\u2019s only right to pass on the things he taught me. Help the younger guys the same way he helped me. I wouldn\u2019t be here if it weren\u2019t for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Lopez is back home in Southern California \u2014 closer to Disneyland than he has been at any stop in his professional career \u2014 and about to play for a franchise that was not on his radar growing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a Cali boy. I grew up in the valley, North Hollywood. Obviously, things were very different back then,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cTo see where the Clippers have come now, it\u2019s just astonishing. It\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Clippers think it\u2019s beautiful to have him in their lineup, too. It\u2019s a sort of homecoming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Brook Lopez has never played for the Clippers. Yet his free agent signing with them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-10542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}