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NBA free agency 2023: Brook Lopez agrees to return to Bucks on 2-year, $48M deal

Brook Lopez's brother, Robin Lopez, agreed to return to the Bucks on Monday, too

Brook Lopez has agreed to a new contract. (John Fisher/Getty Images)
Brook Lopez has agreed to a new contract. (John Fisher/Getty Images)

Coming off his best season with the Milwaukee Bucks, Brook Lopez has a lucrative new deal.

The veteran center agreed to a two-year, $48 million deal to return to the Bucks, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania.

Lopez, 35, is coming off his first selection to the NBA's All-Defensive First Team and finished second in voting to Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr. for Defensive Player of the Year. He posted his highest scoring average in five years with the Bucks while tallying 15.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game and shooting 53.1% from the field and 37.4% from 3-point distance on 4.7 attempts per game.

Lopez was integral to Milwaukee's run to the 2021 NBA championship and has developed into one of the NBA's premier 3-and-D players as a Bucks starter. His progression from a one-dimensional low-post center into a versatile scorer, long-range threat and floor spacer who protects the rim proved invaluable as the Bucks developed into an Eastern Conference power in the last half-decade.

Lopez has grown his game alongside the evolution of the NBA and hit the open market as a highly coveted 35-year-old because of it. Now, he has the contract to show for it.

Robin Lopez to join the Bucks, too

The Lopez brothers will be reuniting in Milwaukee.

Just days after Brook Lopez reached his deal to return to the Bucks, his brother, Robin, followed suit.

Robin, 35, averaged three points and 1.4 rebounds in 37 games off the bench last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who brought him in on a one-year, $2.9 million deal. Those were both career lows.

The Lopez brothers haven't played on the same team since the 2019-20 season, when they fell in the Eastern Conference semifinals in the NBA's COVID-19 bubble in Walt Disney World. That was Robin's only season in Milwaukee. He played a season for the Washington Wizards and Orlando Magic before joining Cleveland last season.