23 years ago today, SHAWN BRADLEY put up 22 PTS, 22 REB, 13 BLK off the bench!

He’s mostly known for getting dunked on but he had some impressive games

32 PTS, 16 REB
28 PTS, 22 REB, 9 BLK
23 PTS, 22 REB, 5 BLK
23 PTS, 14 REB, 8 BLK
20 PTS, 13 REB, 8 BLK
19 PTS, 17 REB, 11 BLK pic.twitter.com/lqZ24YiYY5

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) April 7, 2021

The Brooklyn Nets have had plenty of players play for the franchise in the 59-year history of the organization that began its days in the ABA as the New Jersey Americans. Since the franchise has moved to Brooklyn, there hasn’t been much playoff success to speak of, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t great players that have played for the team.

In terms of blocks per game, center Shawn Bradley was the best rim protector in the history of the franchise as he has the highest blocks-per-game average of 3.8 rejections per game. After Bradley, it’s center George Johnson (2.8 blocks per game), center Billy Paultz (2.1), forward Julius “Dr. J” Erving (2.1), and center Chris Dudley (1.9) to round out the top-5 players in franchise history for blocks per game.

Bradley played for the Nets, then in New Jersey, for parts of two seasons from the 1995-96 season to the 1996-97 campaign, which would explain why he has the highest blocks-per-game average in franchise history without ranking high on the total blocks leaderboards. In the 107 games that Bradley played for the Nets, he averaged 3.8 blocks per game, amounting to 410 total blocks.

For context, Dudley and wing Chris Morris are tied for the ninth-most blocks (468) in the history of the franchise, meaning that Dudley was just 58 blocks away from entering the top-9 on the list. Assuming that Bradley’s blocks-per-game average would have stayed the same, he would have needed just 16 games to amass at least 468 blocks, showing just how much of a force he was at the rim.

In terms of total blocks over the course of a player’s tenure with the Nets, Brook Lopez is the leader in that category with 972 blocks, equating to 1.7 blocks per contest over his 562 games with the franchise. While Lopez is considered one of the best players in the history of the Nets, Bradley seems to be the best rim protector due to his gaudy numbers.