Robin Lopez is the intangibles twin, more active defensively and on the glass with an improving offensive game.  But drafting Robin on the expectation that he eventually becomes as skilled offensively as Brook would be a mistake.  He is a decent offensive player for a defensive/hustle big, and he will certainly develop, but it is difficult to consider him trustworthy with the ball.

He gets long with the ball and has great tip-in abilities but no real consistency in the post.

He improved his pivot work significantly over his two years at Stanford, but his game is still only good in pieces and fragments; he hasn?t put it all together in a dependable way.

Lopez will turn baseline in the post for a nice 10-foot jumper or will make a little one-handed jump hook.  But his hook shot is routinely flat and doesn?t have much touch on it.

He also is prone to travel in the post and sometimes take an unnecessary dribble in order to get comfortable and, therefore, gets doubled.  He lets himself become out of control when flustered with the ball and often brings the ball down upon a catch in which he gets stripped by smaller defenders.

But Lopez will do a good job keeping the ball high when he makes a clean catch, and he also has good balance here.

He has a good show-hand when calling for the ball in the post but would be far more effective if he could keep his upper body more upright.

He will make a nice drop step from the left post. But, he sometimes has a tough time flushing on defenders as tall as him or even good leapers, and he doesn?t have a very strong left hand.

Lopez is always vulnerable to turnover when he puts the ball on the floor although he isn?t a horrible ballhandler.  He can dribble down the lane for a little one-handed runner off the glass.  The game is still just a little too fast for him when he has the ball.

He sometimes loses where he is on the floor when he gets the ball in the post, and defenders like Kevin Love are able to nudge him out of the post to a position closer to the perimeter where he will not be as effective.

He is improving at beating the double team by trusting his abilities to split defenders and get into the paint gracefully.  

He also has nice ability as a passer; Lopez should become above average for his position, and it should offset his deficiencies as a pure post player.  He made a ton of nice wraparounds and shovel passes in the post and makes decent kick out passes.

Lopez won?t be useful anytime soon on the pick and pop since he struggles with his face-up game, but he should immediately be effective on the pick and roll.  He is comfortable cutting down the lane and is usually able to make a good catch and finish a little right-handed runner.

Unlike other bigs, Robin maximizes his size when he sets a screen.

Defensively, Lopez is a far more finished product.  He fronts the post well and is really quick to the ball on rebounds, equally because of his athletic abilities but also because of a keen natural instinct for where the ball is going.  He gets as long as possible and affects a good number of the shots he doesn?t block.

He has a good defensive stance and a decent understanding of help defense although he is occasionally a little late to the ball and has a tougher time guarding players who cut because he gets turned around and loses sight of the ball.

Lopez has good foot speed in the open floor, but it seems like he is always coasting; he doesn?t sprint down ahead of the transition play for easy buckets the way Darrell Arthur and Marresse Speights do routinely.  

Some of that could be attributed to the style of play Stanford used because so many of his buckets are strictly perseverance points.  I expect him to eventually have that same intensity in transition he does in the halfcourt on defense.

The Anderson Varejao projections are a little cheap and obvious given the hair, but they do feel accurate given his skill set offensively and the energy he brings defensively.

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Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM.  He can be reached at Chris.Reina@RealGM.com where he may use your draft questions in a future mailbag edition