NBA Rumors 2016: With Another Early Exit, Brooklyn Nets to Shut down Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young
The Brooklyn Nets only have six more games to play in the regular season; but unlike other teams grinding it out and making a push for the playoffs, they once again will take an early vacation with zero chances of making it to the postseason. So with an early rest forthcoming, it's just fitting to shut down two of their best frontline players in Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young. What sense does it have to let these two injury-prone big men play the remaining games without the hope of winning them?
Per Nets Daily, these two have enjoyed a unique season, where they surprisingly didn't miss any games because of injury. Everyone knows how fragile their knees and feet are, especially Lopez, who endured a lot of hardships in the past several seasons, missing a lot of games due to a series of injuries.
However, this season is something the franchise shouldn't really be proud of. It is one of their worst seasons in franchise history and perhaps the only one that exceeds it is in 2009-10 when they only managed 12 victories in 82 games.
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But other than resting Lopez and Young, there also are other implications should the Nets lose all their remaining games. They currently sport a 21-56 win-loss record, which is the fourth worst in the league as of this posting. It gets interesting because if they eventually finish the season lower than the Phoenix Suns (20-57), it means they give the Celtics a better chance of getting a better pick in the draft. That Boston first round pick came from the Nets in the trade that involved Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry in 2013.
In spite of the ugly season for the Nets, Lopez and Young saw their numbers improve from last season. In 73 games, Lopez averaged 20.6 points and 7.8 rebounds, while Young averaged 15.9 points and 9.0 rebounds.
