Milwaukee Bucks: Can Brook Lopez duplicate success from 3?

Brook Lopez and his three-point shooting was a huge free agent signing for the Milwaukee Bucks last season, but can he have the same success from deep in 2019?

During the 2018 NBA offseason, the Milwaukee Bucks decided to sign big-man Brook Lopez to a one year – $3.38 million contract. At the time it seemed like a fairly inconspicuous move, but it turned out to be one of the more important decisions that GM Jon Horst would make as Lopez would play an integral part in the team’s success.

On the season, Lopez would take a whopping 512 three-point attempts and make 36.5 percent of those shots. Dubbed “Splash Mountain” because of his three-point range and his 7-foot frame, defenses had to respect Lopez’ ability from deep which created more space and opened up the floor for Giannis Antetokounmpo to take over.

Lopez played such a key part to the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2018 season, that re-signing him this offseason was one of their top priorities. Just shortly after the NBA free agency period began, Lopez signed a four year – $52 million deal to stay in Milwaukee.

However, as we look ahead to the upcoming season we have to ask the question, can Lopez have similar success from deep once again?

First off, Lopez deserves a ton of credit for adapting to the new NBA game where many teams live and die by the three-point ball. Through his first six seasons in the NBA, Lopez never even attempted a three-pointer and it was only three years ago that he started taking them with any regularity.

Prior to last season with the Milwaukee Bucks, Lopez would hit 33.5 percent of his career three-point attempts, which is a three percent drop-off from his 2018 total. So does that mean he is set to regress in 2019? Or given that last year was only his third true season as a three-point shooter, are those numbers a more accurate representation of what he can do from deep as he continues to develop that skill set? Only time will tell.

Obviously, the Milwaukee Bucks hope that it is the latter as their team three-point shooting is something that needs to improve this season if they hope to make it past the Eastern Conference Finals.

As a team, the Bucks finished 14th in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage last season and their inability to hit shots from deep is a big reason they lost to the Toronto Raptors in the Conference Finals. In total that series Milwaukee would hit just 31 percent of their shots from beyond the arc.

The offseason additions of Wes Matthews and Kyle Korver should provide them with some extra firepower from deep but neither player is going to pose the same defensive mismatch that Lopez does as a 7-footer who can rain threes from the Deer District.

Brook Lopez and his three-point ball will once again play an important role in the success of this Milwaukee Bucks’ offense and hopefully, we can see him build upon his performance from last year.