Nets GM says Brook Lopez will never be a 10 rebound a game guy

Brook Lopez is not a terrible rebounder. He’s just a terrible rebounder for a guy who is 7-feet tall and spends his time hanging out near the basket. He’s averaging an uninspiring 8.6 rebounds per game.

Or, look at it this way: so far this season, Lopez is bringing down about 10.4 percent of the available rebounds when he is on the floor. Which is down from previous years (he was at a solid 15.4 percent as a rookie). For comparison, Kevin Love is at 23.5 percent and most traditional starting centers are in the upper teens.

In a fit of either honesty or Phil Jackson style through-the-media motivation, New Jersey Nets general manager Billy King said he never expects Lopez to average 10 rebounds a game because he doesn’t have the desire, as reported by the New York Daily News.

“I don’t think Brook is ever going to be a 10-rebound guy. Rik Smits, I think, at his best was a seven-rebound guy. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as great a scorer as he was, he wasn’t a great rebounder. Some guys have a knack for it. Some guys don’t,” King said. “I think he could get better at it, I just don’t think it’s something where he’s going to be a 10-, 12-rebound guy a night. I just don’t think it’s in him.”

You don’t see Smits and Abdul-Jabbar in the same sentence all that often. King tried to soften the blow by saying every team still wants Lopez.

“If you do your polls and talk to 29 other GMs, I guarantee you 29 of them that would say, ‘If you don’t want him, we’ll take him.”