Brook Lopez, the 6 ft 11 in New Jersey Nets centre, has had decent three years in NBA. In that span, he has established himself as a centre with remarkable offensive potential and coming into this season, he was being considered as the top bait, the Nets had on offer in a bid to land Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard. Little did they know that Lopez will not even be able to feature this season ....
New Jersey Nets have faced a major setback as Brook Lopez will be missing at least the first two months of NBA action with a fractured right foot. Lopez, who was the Nets top scorer last season, suffered the injury in an exhibition scrimmage against the New York Knicks on Wednesday.
He is expected to undergo a surgery in a day or two and even though Nets avoided commenting on the exact time that would take him to heal, it is expected that he is out for a good 8-10 weeks or possibly more, depending on the degree of the fracture.
"I had a long talk with Brook last night," coach Avery Johnson said in a statement. "He is not in great spirits but we tried to lift his spirits to let him know that, hey, this is a little bit of a setback but he could definitely have a big-time comeback. Hopefully, once we get through with the surgery and get back to rehabbing and he can heal up and we can get him back at some point this season."
Lopez was phenomenal last season and finished with a career high average of 20.4 points and 6 rebounds per game. His rebounding numbers did go down a bit, but just a fortnight ago, he showed his desire to overcome that weakness this time around.
The Nets were quick to fill in the void though and have signed Mehmet Okur, the 6 ft 11 centre, who last played for Utah Jazz.
"Mehmet will give us added scoring and size," Nets general manager Billy King said in a statement. "His ability to shoot the 3 will help space the floor."
Nets terminated Stephen Graham’s $ 1.1 million contract using the amnesty clause earlier today, and acquired the Utah’s centre for $ 10.89 million.
Mehmet is an equally capable player and averages 13.7 points and 7.1 rebounds in his 9 years career; however his career has been injury-plagued. That will be the last thing that the Nets will want now. If even Okur gets injured then they are only left with a certain Kris Humphries of the Kim Kardashian fame on the paint.
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