Milwaukee Bucks: Revisiting Brook Lopez’s ambitious 2020-21 goals

Brook Lopez has been a key player for the Milwaukee Bucks since their ascension into contention over the past several years.

Initially coming over on a very team-friendly deal, Lopez has proven to be among the best free agent signings made by the Bucks over the past decade. He has become a massive part of what the team likes to do on both ends of the floor, and they needed him to have a big year in 2020-21 after yet another postseason failure the year prior. We handed Lopez these three goals before the start of last season, and it is time to see if he hit the mark on any of them during Milwaukee’s title-winning campaign.

Revisiting Brook Lopez’s 2020-21 goals with the Milwaukee Bucks: No. 1 – Fully regain 3-point consistency

No one could have predicted how well Lopez would shoot the basketball from deep during his first year with the Bucks in 2018-19. Primarily having been a low-post scorer throughout his career up to that point, the big man showed off a newly equipped 3-point shot with the Bucks by shooting a stellar 36.5 percent on a hefty 6.3 attempts per game. Unfortunately, Lopez’s hot shooting would cool off the following season as he knocked down just 31.4 percent of his triples on 4.8 attempts.

Given how much the Bucks rely on the long ball, it was obvious that everyone wanted to see him regain that shooting touch he displayed in year one. Ultimately, that did not exactly happen as the big man’s percentage went up to 33.8 percent in 2020-21, but his attempts dipped to four a night. He was taking fewer shots from deep than he ever had previously with the Bucks, largely because he went back to his roots and did more damage on the inside offensively. Lopez shot a career-high 63.2 percent on 2-point attempts this season, which helped him piece together the second-most efficient shooting season of his career with a 61.1 true shooting percentage.

So, no, Lopez did not regain his 3-point consistency that he showed during his first year with the Bucks, but that should not diminish his impressive efforts offensively.