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Pro Sports Wrap - Sports Personality of the Day:Tony Romo

Ronnie Brewer was a key cog for the Chicago Bulls last season, and he was one of the reasons why the Bulls were the best defensive team in the league. However, Brewer is a poor offensive player which is why he will never become a starter in the league. He's still a decent player overall due to his defense, but Brewer just can't shoot or do much else besides defend.

Brewer racks up steals thanks to his long arms, and he has improved his on the ball defense. His quick reflexes and free safety-like feel on defense also help him generate steals. Brewer is tied for the 4th highest steal percentage in the NBA and averages 2.1 steals per 36 minutes.


On the offensive side, Brewer is coming off of his worst shooting season of his career. His True Shooting Percentage has declined every year since 2008. 2007 was the best year of his career in which he had a TS% of 61.2 with an 18.30 PER. On the bright side, he posted by far the highest rebounding rate of his career in 2010. Still, that doesn't offset his declining shooting and poor offensive output. Even though they say that defense wins championships, offense is the most important thing in basketball. Why else is Carmelo Anthony so much better than Corey Brewer?

If there was one relatively major concern about Brewer's D, it was the fact that he just wasn't such a good on-the-ball defender. He significantly improved in that department last season by putting up far and away the best defensive rating of his career (98.4). His total from the previous season was a mediocre 106, so this is a huge improvement. His defensive rating last year was good for 6th best in the NBA, and he earned a spot on my All-Defensive First Team thanks to his great on-the-ball defense and his ability to steal the basketball.


Brewer was horrible at jumpshots last season, and it's easy to see why he is known as a bad shooter when his effective field goal percentage on jumpers was a meager .346. Did you also know that his free throw percentage was 65.4? That's really, really bad especially for a swingman. He averaged only 2.7 free throw attempts per game, and that is also a career high. Brewer has always been good at limiting turnovers, but he posted his highest career turnover rate last year.

So you can easily tell that as Brewer gets better defensively, he gets worse on the offensive end. With that in mind, Brewer is going to end up being a key defensive stopper off the bench; but I doubt he'll be anything more than that. That's not to say that he isn't a pretty good player, it's just that he'll never be a starter when you look at how awful he is at shooting. Brewer does have a nice touch around the rim, but that's really it. By the way, he has a really weird and ugly shot. No wonder why he can't hit anything.

There is an interesting disparity between Brewer's play at the 2 and 3. When he's playing as a shooting guard, he is much better offensively. However, he is much better defensively when he plays at small forward according to the PER numbers on 82games.com. Brewer is slightly better as a small forward thanks to his incredible defense when he plays that position.
Ronnie Brewer
Great D, No Shot


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DeMarcus Cousins had a poor season last year. He was bad offensively and should have been a little bit better on defense. Cousins turned the ball over far too much for a power forward. He also led the league in fouls committed. While these are mistakes that can be corrected with experience, I think that Cousins will continue to foul too much.

Throw out the 14.1 points per game because we all know that PPG is a bad stat. Cousins was a terrible offensive player last year, and his mediocre D did not offset his poor offensive play. He was terribly inefficient and has far too high of a usage rate. His usage rate would be about average for a guard, and he also can't play offense. That's a really bad combination, and it led to a 14.6 PER. Cousins also had one of the lowest True Shooting marks in the NBA.

Cousins was so bad offensively that he was the worst player in the NBA in terms of offensive win shares. Now that's horrible. You can definitely find worse defenders than Cousins, and I think he'll develop into a solid defensive player if he can cut down on his fouls. I don't think he does that with his style of play, but I still think he can be a decent defender in the NBA.

The best thing about Cousins is that he is a solid rebounder. He's able to rack up the boards with his 6-11 frame, but I don't think he should have ever been on the All-Rookie First Team. He's a subpar player right now, and I think he ends up as just a mediocre player over his career.

The former 5th pick in the draft out of Kentucky's behavior problems and immaturity issues also bring his stock down. I really don't see much to like about Cousins, and I think he was a very overrated rookie. What other term is there to describe a guy with a 14.6 PER who ended up on the All-Rookie First Team?
DeMarcus Cousins
1st Team All-Rookie; Are You Kidding Me?
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Maggette had a borderline All-Star caliber season in 2009- his last season with the Warriors and best of his career. Last season was the worst of Corey Maggette's career by far. He had an average year overall, but it was a stark drop off from 2009. He turned the ball over too much and had the worst shooting season of his career. Maggette has always been known as turnover-prone- and foul-prone- but he did cut down on his fouls. His turnover rate was far too high especially considering he had another subpar assist rate.

Maggette had the highest usage rate of his career, and he's playing the least minutes of his career- 20 per game. Maggette's been decent for a player of the bench, but he's easily had the worst year of his career. I think if he has a similar year next season, Maggette may never have another good year in his career. At 31 years old, his body can no longer take all those slashing drives Maggette made earlier in his career. Those plays have caught up to him at this age, and he'll never be the same again.

We can see this trend in his ability to get to the line. He is driving a lot less, and he now gets to the line five times per game. That's still decent, but it's way down from his previous low of 7.9 in 2010. Each year he's been getting more timid, and this has to do with poor health and declining skills. His poor defense doesn't help him either, and things can only go down for Maggette at this point. The highflying swingman is gone and replaced with a timid scorer who can still create his own shots; but he is making them less than ever.
Corey Maggette
Fading Out?
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3/2011 Scouting Report: Gary Neal

March 6th 2011 17:11
I recently talked about why the San Antonio Spurs are so successful, and that's because they have many players that embrace their roles on the team and do a good job of fulfilling their roles. Gary Neal is one of those guys. The undrafted rookie has proven to be a solid player on the team that is a good shooter and performs well offensively. Although he doesn't create his own shots, he isn't called upon to do so in the Spurs' offensive scheme. Creating shots for himself is not his role. He is supposed to camp out near the perimeter and hit shots from kickouts- for the most part.

Neal is average in the other facets of his game, and he isn't exactly "good" at any one thing in particular. However, Neal is a decent player that is really good on the perimeter. A knock on him is that he focuses too much on playing around the arc. When Neal is on a hot streak- like he is now- his shot is nearly unstoppable. He is shooting 41.9 from downtown as well as 44.1 from the field in general, and Neal doesn't attempt many close shots so the stats aren't skewed.

Neal has successfully transfered from the European game to the NBA, and he has been one of the biggest surprises this year in terms of rookies. He was ruthlessly efficient in Italy for his team Treviso, and he led the league in scoring there. Although he actually can create a shot if he is needed to- he did that in Italy- he does a good job of stepping into a new role in the Spurs' scheme and sitting back while spreading the floor and taking his shots from teammates in a supporting role.

Although Neal isn't a physically gifted defensive player, he has now decided to try defending once he has come into the NBA. It is evident that Neal is trying as hard as he can to make the most of his opportunity to finally play in the biggest league. He makes sure to do what he can defensively, and he works so hard in a part of the game where hard work is key. I think Neal will be a solid role player for years to come, and he really embraces and plays any role he has to for his team to win. He is definitely somebody you want on your team. He will help you get your championship by working hard and constantly improving and trying to show his work.
Gary Neal
Embracing His Role
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2011 Scouting Report: Serge Ibaka

February 21st 2011 14:58
Big Man Serge Ibaka Oklahoma City Thunder

We all know him for his recent success at this year's slam dunk contest. I thought he did better than Blake Griffin, but that's not important. We also may know Ibaka for those FIBA commercials, those crazy blocks, and just because we're smart basketball guys. Now let's dig a little deeper into the major role player for Scott Brooks's team


[ Click here to read more ]
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