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Hey all, Wolves fan here. I was wondering if any of you could give me some perspective on Ronnie Brewer, since MN is supposedly considering signing him after the Batum deal is matched.

His defensive metrics seemed to have remained solid to very good, but his offense seems to have dipped since he left the Jazz. One of the issues seems to be that he's taking more threes than he should, but do you think his overall decline is due to the differences between the Jazz offense and the Bulls offense? Did he used to do more cutting to the basket and/or work in the pick and roll game?

Thanks for any responses.

Ronnie Brewer is an above average defender and a very serviceable offensive player if put in the right situations. I magine that in Chicago, he didn't get really a chance to do some of the things he did here in Utah, playing behind a prolific scorer in D Rose and The likes of Boozer and Noah. I definitely believe Brewer's offensive production declined because of the offensive system he played in Chicago. Brewer excelled in Utah because he was able to create opportunities when slashing and cutting to the basket off pick and rolls, able to hit the 15 ft jumper off screens (one of the jazz common plays) and because he had one of the best past first PGs in Deron who consistently was able to find him cheating on the baseline when defenders were paying more attention to Boozer in the post. To Ronnie's credit, he was also a great finisher off fast breaks due to his great athleticism. I think playing in MN he can definitely excell especially playing with a PG in Rubio. With Rubio's great ability to see the court and outstanding passing capabilities, I can see Brewer playing a similar role like he did with the Jazz.

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Brewer would be a great three-and-D guy except for the part where he can't shoot the three.

He's a good slasher and finisher; in the history of Jerry Sloan's offense, no one made better baselines cuts than Brewer.

Brewer is a good bench player that works hard and earns his money. He cant shoot and will never be a great shooter bc an injury during his youth. Jazz dont need him but should be on NBA roster playing 15 min per game

I thought he made a living off of backdoor cuts here in Utah. I doubt the Chicago offense was as good at getting him those opportunities as the Utah offense was.

He can still create offense by lurking in the passing lanes though. But, I think his ability to shoot jumpers or slash is poor. He needs to get free for easy buckets to contribute much in the half court.

So, is Minny skilled at backdoor cuts?

I greatly miss Ronnie. He was a huge asset to the team and I was really sad when they traded him. He is an above average defender, absolutely shut down star opposing SG / SFs consistenly. The only knock in his game was his shooting. He was a terrific finisher in the point, really good fast break threat, and owned the baseline on sleeping defenders. His jump shot was pretty bad, and that was apparently attributed to an injury he sustained as a kid. Even without the shot, he is a huge threat on facilitating a defensive stop and converting it into a fast break easy bucket. I wouldn't hesitate to pick him up again. It's a shame he fell in the shadow of a few players on Chicago.

Edit: With a great passer like Rubio, you would be wise to pick him up and exploit defensive flaws with his speed and hops.

Santizzle wrote:I greatly miss Ronnie. He was a huge asset to the team and I was really sad when they traded him. He is an above average defender, absolutely shut down star opposing SG / SFs consistenly. The only knock in his game was his shooting. He was a terrific finisher in the point, really good fast break threat, and owned the baseline on sleeping defenders. His jump shot was pretty bad, and that was apparently attributed to an injury he sustained as a kid. Even without the shot, he is a huge threat on facilitating a defensive stop and converting it into a fast break easy bucket. I wouldn't hesitate to pick him up again. It's a shame he fell in the shadow of a few players on Chicago.

Edit: With a great passer like Rubio, you would be wise to pick him up and exploit defensive flaws with his speed and hops.

He did? I don't recall that happening. I'd say he was an average man defender myself. Different eyes see different things I guess. Good team defense, average man defense from where I sat. Not a liability by any means, but I don't recall him shutting down anyone ever.

Brewer was pretty much locked into 1-2 steals in the front court for an easy bucket or two per game.

My two cents on Brewer - one of the 8-10 best players from a very weak 2006 draft, the only better players drafted after him were Rajon Rondo ( a full 7 picks later) and our very own Paul Millsap. Ronnie seemed like a genuinely likeable dude, and was one of Deron Williams' buddies. He consistently was top 10 NBA in steals, but my sense was he cheated a lot and could have been a tighter defender. He was at least adequate if not good as a man to man defender and good to very good in team defense ( again, all those steals) but was most certainly not the lock down defender that some remember him as being. His baseline attack was very effective, but teams consistently sagged off of him daring him to shoot from outside. I consider his and Kirilenko's inconsistency from outside as one of the key reasons that Jazz team didn't go farther in the playoffs. Likeable dude, not bad as a 12th/13th man bench player. Mostly broken outside shot is the thing I remember most, for better or worse..

Any chance we could get him back? I was watching Locke's tip-off from a week ago and he said the Jazz organization hasn't really said anything about his option or what the deal is.

Ronnie >>> Carroll by far.

I still wish we could have morphed Brewer and Korver into one player. You'd have an athletic defender and a pure shooter in one.