You're looking at it from Josh's perspective. I'm talking about things from the Rockets perspective. They could have pressed to make something happen with Josh early in FA -- but by all appearances, they chose to wait and see what would happen with KJ in RFA first. Sure, maybe Josh just flat out didn't want to be here and would have walked anyway. But he was very candid about the fact that the Clippers were the first team that contacted him when FA began, and about how much that made him feel really wanted. My point here is that it doesn't look like the Rockets made retaining him much of a priority, for whatever reason. And I guess my big picture point is (1) if you knew DMo would likely miss another chunk of the season, (2) if you knew you'd want to manage Dwight's minutes and rest him when you could, and (3) if you knew TJ is too undersized to play backup C and incredibly injury prone -- if you're the front office and you knew all those things and STILL decided it was worth seeing how things played out w/ KJ before committing $___ to Josh, then you must've seen something in him. So why let him sit there while Corey goes through whatever he's going through? As for Covington -- he played a total of 34 minutes the entire 2014 season, while Cisco struggle MIGHTILY and we looked to Jordan Hamilton to fill the gap. Same year he was D-League All-Star MVP and D-League rookie of the year. I'm not saying they should/could have forecasted what he would look like now. Simply saying it would've taken Cisco's arm falling the hell off for them to even give Rob a look, which seems to be the norm where young guys on this team are concerned.
He has improved defensively. Brett Brown was very vocal about the fact that his defense was subpar and needed to improve if he wanted consistent minutes, and he appears to have answered the call.
Considering he made such a big deal about the Clippers' timing, perhaps bumped him up in the chronological courting timeline to greater indulge his ego. Who knows? Like I said, it's possible he simply wanted out and nothing they did/said would've made a difference. My point is not that the Rockets did anything wrong or should have done something differently -- in fact, I am one who defended the decision to see how things shook out with KJ before committing to other guys. My point is that if you saw something in KJ that made you consider him a relative priority just 5 months ago, why is he not deserving of at least some of Corey's minutes? Maybe he falls flat on his face, but what do you have to lose in finding out?
That KJ McDaniels contract is going to be a complete waste of time and effort given this that this coaching staff is brainwashed into thinking Brewer contributes anything positive to the team.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just looked at Corey Brewer's shooting <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/s?src=hash">#s</a>, and my laptop started beeping and emitting fart noises.</p>— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZachLowe_NBA/status/668070489085079552">November 21, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Sure he has been shooting abysmally, and playing poorly overall the last few games, but last night was an anomaly. Brewer is not that bad, and not that stupid. He already kinda comes off in interviews as a stoner...maybe he ate some mislabeled desserts. :grin:
Bro it's been the whole season thus far. He has been given plenty of time to shake off whatever is making him play so bad. Ridiculous to defend him.
2 straight games bickerstaff inexplicably stuck with brewer in the 4th. no doubt les is just as puzzled as we are
Remember that Magic game where he could've iced the game by hitting 1 free throw but he freaking missed both giving Magic the opportunity to win the game at the end of the 4th. It ended up going in OT and luckily we won. The Portland game he had that miracle shot (still a bad shot even though he made it) but before that he blew a wide open lay up off a nice Harden steal on the inbound.
The Rockets have to bench Corey Brewer By Ethan Rothstein @ ethanrothstein on Nov 28, 2015, 5:57 The Rockets very well could have lost to the Philadelphia 76ers yesterday. I watched the game. The turnovers and fouls committed in the second half were endlessly frustrating, culminating in Corey Brewer fouling Hollis Thompson shooting a three-pointer with 6.2 seconds left in a four-point game. It was Brewer's sixth foul of the game. Most of those other fouls on Brewer were dumb fouls as a result of guards like T.J. McConnell — not fleet of foot and giving up about 7 inches to the lengthy forward — torching him in half-court, one-on-one situations. On the other end of the court, he shot one time from the field (a made corner three), had no assists and two turnovers. He played 22 minutes off the bench. K.J. McDaniels, recalled from RGV and active, remained plastered to the bench. Brew finished as a –9. On the year, lineups with him on the court are scoring 16 fewer points per 100 possessions than those without him. The defense is giving up another point more with him, leading to a net rating of –17.2 (per basketball-reference). He's leading the team in minutes off the bench (a hard stat to calculate considering the amount of different starting lineups the Rockets have used so far). Brewer's unit has been killing Houston The seven most-used, four-man lineup combinations he's been a part of all have negative net ratings. When he shares the court with James Harden and Ty Lawson (basically all three penetrators playing at once), the Rocekts are being outscored by 40 points per 100 possessions. The Rockets are getting outscored by more than 20 points per 100 when Brewer shares the court with one of Harden and Lawson. With the exception of locking him in a lineup alongside Jason Terry (who spaces the floor for Brewer to slash), every lineup Brewer has played in so far this year hasn't just been bad, it's been abysmal. And yet, he continues to get played heavy minutes, particularly down the stretch of games, when the Rockets' second-most impactful player so far this year, Clint Capela, finds himself on the bench more often than not. The question that comes to mind is: why? Why have the Rockets experimented with everything but benching Brewer? Marcus Thornton has started. Terrence Jones has flip-flopped from starter to bench hand to starter and back to bench hand. Trevor Ariza has played as much power forward as he has small forward. Clint Capela is in the starting lineup a month after the Rockets declared he and Howard next to each other would ruin the team's spacing. Jason Terry has started with Ty Lawson healthy, even. The one constant amid all that turnover: Corey Brewer, getting about 20 minutes off the bench, and actively harming the Rockets. I know it's oversimplifying it to look at Brew's -17.2 net rating and think how many of those games the Rockets would have won with anyone else taking those minutes. But you have to think the answer is at least one or two. The obvious answer to who should get Brewer's minutes is K.J. McDaniels. I wrote when McDaniels got sent down to RGV that it was a waste to at least not give him a shot since Brewer has struggled. Yes, playing in the Valley would give him needed on-court minutes, but the Rockets might need him now. Since then? McDaniels has been called back up because of nagging injuries to Patrick Beverley and others. Guess what? Brewer has still been terrible, and McDaniels has not seen the court. The biggest gripe with McDaniels? He can't shoot. Well Brewer has a 29.7 shooting percentage total. Less than 30 percent on all shots! That's crazy, historically bad. You're telling me McDaniels can't do that plus block some shots that start a fast break? But, at this point, it's useless to make this argument. The Rockets — whether it's Kevin McHale or J.B. Bickerstaff at the helm — clearly are determined to not give McDaniels minutes. Whatever. But to continue to play Brewer so much instead of trotting out more two-big lineups or two-point lineups is a fool's errand. Until he gets his head right, he should not be taking his warmups off.
Brewer is starting off really slow. I hope he really starts finding his groove really soon because we desperately need him to. If continuing to play him gets him where we need him to be to help us then so be it. It is the first month of basketball and the team will turn it around once everyone gets their head out of their asses and back to playing shape. Some engines take a little longer to start. I feel Brewer is one of those people. I have faith in the greyhound. Lawson just does not seem like the right fit on this team at all.
we don't have enough time. we're almost quarter into the season and Brew has probably cost us more than two games, and if he needs almost half a season to get back to his groove, by then the Rockets certainly would have fallen out of the playoff picture. we've already given him ample chance to redeem himself and he just can't seem to capitalize on it whatsoever. there is no one player in this league who plays over 20 mins per game and puts up more dismal numbers than he does. i'm sorry, but if Brew can't turn his game around immediately, he's gotta go or benched for the rest of the season. the Clippers last year just didn't sit there like idiots and waited for Spencer Hawes to pick up his game, they benched his ass for good and that was the right call for them. we've got to bite the bullet and do the same.
Man there is no reason whatsoever why McDaniels came get minutes it's seriously pathetic how bad Brewer looks and they don't even think to put the kid in. I can't for the life of me figure it out. Corey can't shoot anymore, can't guard anyone, turns the ball over makes dumb fouls, dribbles and loses the ball into traffic every single game. It's awful.
when you put a "brewer" next to an alcoholic, this is what happens those two players completely fall apart
It's sad that KJ started in that sixers team last year and couldn't even get in and prove himself. I hope the team lobby's for KJ.
Starting off slow?? lol That's the understatement of the year. I hope he finds his way to a gorilla glued bench. He should be in the D league. I am convinced he is a really good friend of Mchale and Bickerstaff any other coaching staff would have benched him long ago.
