You can't necessarily "teach" shooting, but if they work at it they will become a better shooter. Josh Howard/Marquis aren't necessarily good shooters -- and look at the big contributions they made. The need for an athletic guard who is a dead-eye can be negated by the fact he's tenacious at the defensive end and an aggressive driver on the offense side. I'm hoping on Brewer using his athleticism and slash through the lane a la Josh Howard. I'd love to trade for an extra pick in the lottery range, but something tells me the Rockets aren't smart enough to do this. A Brewer + Carney draft would be a STEAL, imo. Give Mike James the full MLE, and we're looking at: Alston/James/Brewer James/Brewer/Carney McGrady/Carney/Brewer SS/Howard Yao/Deke That team is immeaditely younger and more athletic than any of the teams we've had in the past two years. Although if I had to chose between Carney and Brewer, I'd probably give the nod to Carney just because he is better offensively. It's a lot easier to take athletic players who are good at offense and teach them defense. Just ask Avery. (Which brings me to a point - I think AJ is a good coach, but over-rated. Donnie built that team, Avery just inherited a great bunch of talent.)
< digression > Not to mention Cuban funded that team. Stockpiling talent at the cost of $$$. Easy to coach a team that has been built like that. Easy to build a team with funding like that. Hope our owner is paying attention to the payroll of the finals teams (though I can't fault Les too much, having been burned with having to shell out for all the horrible contracts given out the last several years, maybe moneyball will reinstill confidence to spend). < /digression > I think the point about shooting being teachable for Brewer is that it CAN be readily taught, not that it inevitably follows. I think we all know the attributes that are not teachable. Players with the fire and drive to improve will be likely to do just that, and we seem to be reading that he is this kind of person. I would be quite satisfied with the selections of James & Brewer. Good thread.
And that's the key. Who knows if Brewer will be able to make the 3pt shot with some regularity at the NBA level after a few years. But it sounds like he has a work ethic. And to me the work ethic/motor is huge. Look at Richard Jefferson. When he came into the league he was a very poor outside shooter. He is no "deadeye", but he is MUCH better from the outside now after a few years of really working at it. He has a high work ethic and a high motor. With Brewer, i think that's what we get. Someone like Stromile, they just dont have the work ethic to get better. It's sad.
I'm not saying you're going to turn him into Larry Bird or Dirk. I'm saying he needs to be able to hit an outside shot. Maybe an open 3. My example would be possibly a Bruce Bowen. He's not going off for 30 points on you, but you better not leave him open at the 3 pt. line just because you don't see him shoot often. Hakeem was a poor outside player coming into the league. His 15-18 footer became lethal by the end of his career. Jordan became a better jumpshooter. I think Phil Jackson (or maybe someone else) said that he would pop up to 1000 jumpshots a day to improve his shot. The latter 2 are Hall of Famers, I know, but they also had the drive to become better. As for the NBA being full of good shooters if this were true. The NBA would be full of a lot of things if everyone commited to doing something. But they don't... that's why we have the Stromiles of the world. We have offensive players that don't defend. We have defensive players that have no offense. We have big men that are weak rebounders. There are players that can't hit FT's. Any of these could be improved, but they aren't. Shooting 30 jumpers a day in practice isn't going to make you a better shooter. Repetition and work ethic is what makes you better and it seems this Brewer kid has the work ethic part down from what I've read of him, although I don't know how much his physical limitation (injury) will stop him from becoming a better shooter.
This is exactly my point.....a good percentage of players improve marginally. The guys that have improved dramatically in college (due to hard work) are probably safer bets. Now, is Brewer one of them...I don't know. I am just tired of the Eddie Griffin pick. Hoping they develop......there are prospects out there with far less risk. IMHO. DD
Even if Brewer doesn't improve his shot, he still brings a lot to the table. He can handle the ball, slash, defend. I'd hardly call him an Eddie Griffin pick.
I don't see why this is an Eddie Griffin pick. Brewer is a great kid from everything I've heard and doesn't have a troubled past. I talked with a friend whose family is very tight with Brewer and they have nothing but great things to say about him. The guy plays great d, he handles the ball, and has great basketball IQ, can probably play 2-3 positions, etc. The only thing he apparently doesn't do well is shoot the ball. Is there someone in the draft at that position that does everything I mentioned and can shoot the ball? In other words, who do you want us to pick that's head and shoulders above what Brewer brings?
I think I would be willing to sacrifice a little bit of shooting for someone with a really high basketball IQ. Bob Sura was not a good outside shooter but he was a player with a good basketball IQ and a motor that never stopped. The effect he had on the Rockets could not be seen on his individual stat sheet but we could all see how it translated to wins and losses. I will take that type of player any day with or with out the outside shot.
Crash, that's a great analogy! Sura is far from a sharpshooter. But he does so many things on the floor which includes breaking down the defense to create shots for himself or others (higher percentage shots CLOSER to the basket). He grabs those tough rebounds, defends and is smart. Having a guy like Brewer on the court allows the Rockets so many options both offensively and defensively. Versitility is huge here. Draft Ronnie Brewer, Sign Mike James.
I just think that with Sura's approach to the game that his high basketball IQ more than made up for his lack of an outside shot. After years of watching Steve Francis play the game I have just become sick of watching players with low basketball IQ. And I loved the way Steve hustled and how he never gave up but damn it sure was hard to watch all of the turnovers and bone headed mistakes. When we won 51 games last year, T-Mac, Yao, Jon Barry and Bob Sura all had very high Basketball IQ's and all gave 100%. I would love to suround T-Mac and Yao with those types of players again. IMO, Brewer fits that mold...plus he's younger and a lot more athletic than either Sura or Barry. The more I think about Brewer the more I like him. Draft Ronnie Brewer, Sign Mike James.
Espn is reporting that Brewer has a 41 inch maximum vertical one of the best in the draft, while JJ Redick postes 33 inch verital. Marcus Williams had a 28 inch vertical.
Carney was also the fastest in the three quarter sprints with a reported blinding speed of 3.06 and a 38.5 inch vertical.
I'm not surprised. With his genes, and that video of him shooting down the court, I kind of figured that he would be at the top of the class at straight ahead speed. He'll be a terrific transition player in the league. That much is certain.
Randy Foye surprised alot by being the 6th best athlete tested at the combines behind Carney at 5. Foye has a 38 inch vertical and lane agility drill a 10.53 which was one of the best. Farmar had the highest vertical with 42 inches.
As a Florida grad who has closely watched Brewer develop for the last few years, let me say I would love to see him in a Rox uniform. Someone elswhere (or maybe here) mentioned he is a combination of Josh Howard and Larry Hughes--I could not think of a better comparison. While not as physical or thick as Howard, he is every bit of the defender and has much more lateral quickness and ball skills. And while he does not have the foot quickness of Hughes, he is just as good anticipating passes, slashing the lane, or handling the ball, but he has the added benefit of more length and strength. And, like both of the above, he struggles with his jumper at times, but also remember that he was NEVER open in college--all three years in college he was the one player on Arky that was keyed defensively. Even then, look at his statistics and you will see a guy who improved his shooting in one way or another every year: averaged 2 shots per game and shot under 30% as a frosh, averaged 3 shots per game and shot 40% as a soph, then averaged rougly 5 shots per game while dropping to 34% as a junior. The important thing is that he improved on his percentage as a sophomore, then improved on his willingness to take shots as a junior (at Stan Heath's request). This kid has the athleticism, coordination, toughness, and poise to be better than either Hughes or Howard, though I don't ever see him being an All-Star in this league. He would be a pretty darn competent third option on a championshio team, though!
