Five under-the-radar players who have destroyed the Toronto Raptors over the years
By Jordan Skuse
Brook Lopez
Before he turned himself into a stretch five, Brook Lopez operated almost exclusively in the paint and was extremely successful in doing so. People forget how dominant Lopez was during his time with the Nets, but the big man was darn near unstoppable many nights, particularly against the Raptors. Lopez scored more than 30 five different times on Toronto, and on 11 other occasions, eclipsed 20 points.
This past year, Lopez played a key role in helping to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to the best regular-season record in the league. His three-point stroke, something Lopez only recently added to his game, transformed the way teams had to defend the big man — just ask Nick Nurse how much fun it is to gameplan for the Stanford product.
Lopez poured in 29 points in Game 1 of this past year’s Eastern Conference Finals series, helping the Bucks take an early lead in the series.
Yes, we all know what happened afterward. However, despite his team losing in six games, Lopez was a thorn in the dinos side all series long because of his shooting touch, tenacious rebounding, and of course, his paint scoring (he still does that very well, on top of his newfound shooting stroke).
Apart from a couple of years spent with the Los Angeles Lakers, Lopez has never veered too far from Toronto. After signing a four-year, $52 million deal with the Bucks back in July, he figures to continue to give the Raptors headaches for years to come.
A rare case of a player re-inventing themselves to keep up with league trends, Brook Lopez has enjoyed a very nice NBA career to this point, and he has the Toronto Raptors to thank (partially) for what are some impressive career numbers.