I'm not sure with him. He is alright defensivly but is to aggressive some times. Hopefully he learns to calm down and keep the aggressiveness down. He should be able to fit our style of play but who knows.
I really hope he can turn out to be a solid defensive presence without constantly getting into foul trouble. He's young though and has time to learn how to react, I think his ceiling will be capped at a camby type player, and that should be perfect for the Suns... we'll all just have to wait to see if he can learn to control himself.
he's too stiff. he doesn't appear to articulate his lower body limbs much. some ballerina classes would do wonders for his mobility. given that he doesn't have much footwork, he could also adress that issue as well as his unfortunate problem of being constantly fouled.
i also think he's a bit underpowered, there are some pretty thick bigs in the nba, and robin is on the skinny side. imagine trying to hold perkins? not going to happen. a true defensive big should be somewhat bulky(low bf%, more muscle mass) yet be able to move rather quickly. i know he's not going to be large body anytime soon but he should hit the weight room a bit more to gain more mass - eventually he'll be strong to hold the heavier centers.
i do however, admire his hustle for defense. an obvious problem the suns have always suffered since adam and eve.
I'm really not sure with Lopez. At times I think he may have a productive future in the NBA, and at times I think he's just another stiff. Part of the latter could be attributed to being a rookie, but there is a lot for him to work on.
As was said earlier, he's stiff. He doesn't move his body well, and he lacks lateral movement which constantly places him in bad defensive postion. The result is foul trouble as he tries to make up for being in the wrong place. He also needs to be a stronger rebounder, and maybe that will come with adding some muscle or weight to his body. He is pushed around a lot down low.
I do like his weakside shot blocking ability. Hopefully he can just become a good servicable backup center. I'd be pleased with that.
Yeah Rab, I think we should be satisfied if Robin is a good backup for the Suns. Can give us some hustle, boards, blocks, and a few garbage buckets. Like a rich mans Louis Amundson(sp?) style of player.
Yeah Rab, I think we should be satisfied if Robin is a good backup for the Suns. Can give us some hustle, boards, blocks, and a few garbage buckets. Like a rich mans Louis Amundson(sp?) style of player.
That's all I can really hope for. I hate the pick when the Suns selected him at 15. Not that there was much out there, but I didn't like his game in college, and I didn't think he'd adapt well to the NBA. Hopefully he'll improve and help the Suns lack of frontcourt size and depth.
Robin Lopez
