Milwaukee Bucks: Is Brook Lopez leaving in free agency?

The Milwaukee Bucks got a great season from Brook Lopez despite the center turning 35 in April.

Lopez averaged 15.9 points per game, shot 37.4 percent from three-point range, and averaged 2.5 blocks per game. He was a finalist for NBA Defensive Player of the Year and made the NBA All-Defensive first team.

It was a nice bounce-back season from a forgettable 2021-2022 season when he played in just 13 games because of a back injury.

Lopez is one of the game’s most feared rim protectors.

He is set to be a free agent once it opens on June 30th. The Milwaukee Bucks can offer him a three-year deal worth up to $54 million.

Ideally, the Bucks would be wise to get him to sign a two-year extension since father time can erode his skills at any time.

Although, general manager Jon Horst may have to offer a third year to keep Lopez in Milwaukee.

There is speculation that the Dallas Mavericks could make a run at signing Lopez once free agency begins. The belief is the Mavs need to get Luka Doncic a center that can fit in with him offensively.

The Mavericks would have to renounce many of their free agents to free up the necessary cap space to get Lopez. They are currently way over the salary cap with all their cap holds.

They could easily renounce their rights to Kyrie Irving to create the cap space to bring in Lopez. Considering what Dallas traded to get Kyrie and then not make the playoffs, Mark Cuban might be more inclined to retain Kyrie.

The other problem is the Mavs cannot offer as much as money to Brook as the Bucks can.

This speculation brings to light that the Milwaukee Bucks probably will have to give Lopez that third year if they want to keep him.

He is the ideal center in the modern NBA since he does not clog up the lane on offense and he makes teams think twice about driving to the basket. If you need a bucket using the old-school post method, Lopez can still do that.

That is why he is so valuable to the Bucks.

He does not have to sit on the block, allowing for clear driving lanes for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Lopez can wait out on the perimeter and knock down open threes on a kick out pass. His presence can shut down the paint for the opposing offense.

Those skills tend to age well as long as his back injury does not appear again. Still, time is not on his side, so it would be nice to only commit a decent amount of salary cap and luxury tax space for a short amount of time.

If Brook departs in free agency, it almost assuredly means Jon Horst will not entertain trade offers for Bobby Portis.

The Milwaukee Bucks’ best chance for another title is to run it back with the same key players as last season. That means the franchise should do everything it can to keep Lopez from leaving town.