Brewer must be being shopped.....

[Varejao17]

I hope we het rid of him as soon as possible, he's eating Webster minutes...

[eyeteeth]

Brewer and Pekovic for Lopez and Childress works. We take on Childress' 5 year deal at $6.5 mil, which is onerous, but get a perimeter defender who doesn't suck shooting the ball and doesn't mind coming off the bench. That is, a Corey Brewer with an actual jump shot. So that's not awful.

Add in Lopez as a young, athletic backup to Darko and something could be happening. I think if we were to do this, though, we would have to keep Koufos. Three playable centers is probably a good guideline given the reality of injuries.

Does anybody think Lopez could pass the ball or have the smarts to play center in the triangle?

Overall, I don't think we do this, just because I doubt Kahn wants the contract of Childress, esp with new cap rules coming soon. But from a pure basketball POV, it's an interesting trade.

[younggunsmn]

Rambis is giving Wes Johnson the rookie hazing, he doesn't like Wes and pulls him for one mistake while Brewer gets away with murder out there. He's got a punto-like boner for Brewer and "tough love" with wes.

Lopez is very much a big part of the suns' plans and I don't see them moving him for our garbage. Gortat is going to give them a defensive presence, but I don't think they forsee playing him more than 20-24 minutes which leaves plenty of time for Robin and Frye.

Childress is a terrible player with a terrible contract and I want nothing to do with it. His deal is just short of Jaric-bad.

[LOBO 7]

Rambis is giving Wes Johnson the rookie hazing, he doesn't like Wes and pulls him for one mistake while Brewer gets away with murder out there. He's got a punto-like boner for Brewer and "tough love" with wes.

This is an exaggeration. Rambis has given Wes plenty of opportunity. The games when Wes gets limited minutes are the games in which he completely disappears. I'm high on Wes, and think he will be really solid, but he has to learn to get involved. It's not just him, it's our other players too that have to find ways to get him more involved. It's a process, but the bottom line is that he does disappear at times.
Even if you hate Brewer, which I know you do, you have to admit that, for better or for worse, he never disappears from games. While his man defense is nothing special, his non-stop hustle makes things happen at both ends of the floor. After Love and Beasley, he is third best on our team in terms of getting to the line. In fewer minutes than Wes, Brewer has attempted 90 FTs to Wes's 35. Of course it is ugly at times, but his style of play at both ends of the floor DOES bring some positives to the team, especially when the pace has become too plodding. I'm sure Rambis understands Brewer's faults, but his energy can be contagious and sometimes that is exactly what the team needs.

[LOBO 7]

Rambis is giving Wes Johnson the rookie hazing, he doesn't like Wes and pulls him for one mistake while Brewer gets away with murder out there. He's got a punto-like boner for Brewer and "tough love" with wes.

This is an exaggeration. Rambis has given Wes plenty of opportunity. The games when Wes gets limited minutes are the games in which he completely disappears. I'm high on Wes, and think he will be really solid, but he has to learn to get involved. It's not just him, it's our other players too that have to find ways to get him more involved. It's a process, but the bottom line is that he does disappear at times.
Even if you hate Brewer, which I know you do, you have to admit that, for better or for worse, he never disappears from games. While his man defense is nothing special, his non-stop hustle makes things happen at both ends of the floor. After Love and Beasley, he is third best on our team in terms of getting to the line. In fewer minutes than Wes, Brewer has attempted 90 FTs to Wes's 35. Of course it is ugly at times, but his style of play at both ends of the floor DOES bring some positives to the team, especially when the pace has become too plodding. I'm sure Rambis understands Brewer's faults, but his energy can be contagious and sometimes that is exactly what the team needs.

Also, I'm sure once Webster is back to 100% he will start playing 30-35 MPG at the expense of Brewer's minutes. Hopefully Wes will continue to improve as well, and by the end of the year Brewer might be down to closer to 20 MPG, which is probably what he is best suited to. Up to this point though, Rambis hasn't had too much choice. He has given Ellington plenty of opportunity as well, and overall he has contributed far less than Brewer has.

[shangrila]

I'd be fine with moving out Pek(that might complicate things) or changing the first to the memphis one.

They just have Vince carter, Pietrus, Childress, Grant Hill and Dudley at the wing spot. I cant imagine that Dudley would get minutes over Pietrus, Carter, or Hill, and they are stuck with him for 5 years. Who knows, that might sound better to them than it does to me.

Yea, the trade doesnt work with Pek. someone would have to take Childress to make it work, and I dont think anyone wants to do that

Maybe things have changed, so if they have I'd be fine taking on Dudley. Not sure if Childress would be as happy with the minutes he'd be getting behind Johnson, Webster and Beasley though, but Dudley would.

Pek+1st for Dudley+Lopez works financially, but I'm still not sure they go for it. Gortat would have to be a beast to make Lopez expendable and even they might ask more then what he's worth. Lopez would be a perfect fit for this team though.

The way I've been thinking lately is that the team should aim for a 48 minute rotation of good defenders at both the point guard and centre positions. Rubio+someone and Darko+someone. If the team can get something like that going then it won't matter as much if Beasley and Love are merely average.

[younggunsmn]

Martell has played 28 and 30 minutes the last 2 games. Brewer is taking Johnson's minutes not websters.

I've never hid that I can't stand brewer. I hate the "wes just disappears" crap excuses I keep hearing. Brewer is visible in a VERY NEGATIVE way most of the time on both ends of the floor. He's one of the worst offensive players in the entire league and the other teams openly target him on the defensive end and run plays for whomever he's guarding because he can't get around a screen. Not to mention he gambles alot and hangs his teammates out to dry, and often refuses to pass to an open shooter or give the ball up on the break so he can take one of his kamikaze dribble drives.

Wes doesn't light things up, but he has very few plays run for him and he makes smart passes consistently. And unlike Brewer, the other team actually has to guard him. When he does try to be assertive Rambis immediately has yanked him more than once after he missed a long jumper. Brewer screws up repeatedly but Rambis won't yank him. Rambis even played Lazar Hayward for a spell against the Nuggets over Johnson. Johnson is by no means a finished product, but he's loads more talented and a better team player than Brewer. He needs to work on getting his shot and getting to the line, but he can't do that sitting on the bench while a vastly inferior player takes his minutes. We aren't fighting for the playoffs here either. There is no excuse to play a mediocre at best player in Brewer whose value to the franchise is going to expire soon along with his contract over a supremely talented guy you just picked 4th overall in the draft.

Over his last 9 games Wes is shooting 56% (37/66) overall and 37% from 3 in 28.5 minutes per game.
Corey Brewer over that same period is shooting 39% (35/89) and 28% from 3 in 29.5 minutes per game.

Corey has taken 23 more shots and made 2 fewer and is playing more minutes per game.

This leads me to 2 conclusions:
1. Rambis prefers to play Brewer and/or is using him to play mindgames with Wes in the same way he played Ryan Hollins over Love last year.
2. Other teams dare Brewer to shoot and he rewards them by missing.

I think like most fans I wouldn't have a problem with brewer in a proper role (5-10 MPG or even 20 with injuries), but now that he's taking minutes from better players and on the floor at the end of games it is really making me angry. Like when he dribbled the ball off his foot out of bounds in the last 2 minutes against the nuggets and his man dunked on the other end while he played "my bad" with Jonny Flynn. How many crucial shots has this guy missed or been forced into this season in the final 2 minutes of games while a better player sat on the bench? It's almost like Rambis is using him to tank, like he's this year's sasha pavlovic.

FREE WESLEY JOHNSON!

[Esohny]

Gotta agree on all counts in regard to Brewer, YGMN.

[horaceworthy]

I think YGM's Brewer vitriol is a bit *insert title of Sly Stallone movie about an arm wrestling trucker here*, but I agree with the basic premise that Wes needs more minutes. A big thing holding him back is that he's just not proactive enough, and he's not going to learn to rectify that from the bench.

[revprodeji]

I have always been one of Brewer's biggest supporters but his time is sadly coming to an end.

We have Johnson, Webster, Beasley under contract and a sure part of our future. Brewer is an expiring contract and likely would not be re-signed as the 4th wing when we have a 1st rd pick in Haywood as well as Belly waiting over seas.

[Piecake]

The way I've been thinking lately is that the team should aim for a 48 minute rotation of good defenders at both the point guard and centre positions. Rubio+someone and Darko+someone. If the team can get something like that going then it won't matter as much if Beasley and Love are merely average.

Totally agree