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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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2010 PSW NBA All-Defensive Team

May 10th 2011 14:29
Team One

PG Rajon Rondo
SG Ronnie Brewer
SF Luol Deng
PF Kevin Garnett
C Dwight Howard

Team Two

PG Chris Paul
SG Tony Allen
SF LeBron James
PF Joakim Noah
C Omer Asik

Team Three

PG C.J. Watson
SG Carlos Delfino
SF Paul Pierce
PF Taj Gibson
C Marcus Camby
Dwight Howard
King of D
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2010 PSW NBA Coach of the Year

April 22nd 2011 14:39
The Chicago Bulls have had the biggest turnaround in the NBA from last year. They were a border line playoff team in an Eastern Conference that had no depth, but they are now the best team in the NBA. So far, the Bulls are up 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs. This is all thanks to the Celtics-style half-court defense brought in by a former Celtics assistant coach.

Erik Spoelstra, Greg Popovich, and Lionel Hollins deserve recognition for also doing a great job; first-year Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau's work this season has been unmatched. The defense he brought in was modified, and Thibodeau was able to shut down top offensive teams like the Miami Heat. He frustrated LeBron James and Dwayne Wade when the Heat faced the Bulls.

Thanks to Derrick Rose, the Bulls were a decent team offensively. However, it was Thibodeau's plan that made Chicago the most efficient team defensively. The Bulls' defensive efficiency was 97.4, ahead of Boston's 97.8 mark. Their defense helped them become the second most efficient team in the league, .5 under the Heat. They were more efficient by 1.5 than the next three teams: the Lakers, Magic, and Spurs.

The Bulls were the best in the league with a 46.27 effective field goal percentage allowed, and that's all thanks to Thibodeau's scheme and his rigorous work with his players during practice. Rebounding is a big part of good defending, and the Bulls were the best rebounding team in the league. The Bulls were exceptional at defending the short range jumper and were easily the best in the league at covering 3's and long 2's. That's what you call perimeter defense.

Tom Thibodeau's defense starts with interior defense, but it's strength is perimeter defense. Simply put: they do not get shot on. Still not sold? The Bulls have the highest defensive ratio in the league- over Boston and Miami- and it shows how well a team defends shots by dividing the other team's expected shooting percentage which is based on the league average. For example, the league average for 3's could be about 30 percent- hypothetically speaking. So, you crunch all the expected numbers for every spot on the court, and you create expected shooting percentage. You then divide by shooting percentage to show how well a team really is defending.

Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Ronnie Brewer, Omer Asik, and Carlos Boozer are all solid defenders *insert high level for Brewer and Noah*. They execute well defensively on the court, but the Bulls would never be this great defensively without Thibodeau. The Bulls are a close-knit team now with Thibodeau, and everybody is a brother. They always have fun on and off the court, and this is how basketball teams should be. It's also another reason for me picking Tom Thibodeau as my 2010-2011 NBA Coach of the Year.
Tom Thibodeau
2010 PSW Coach of the Year
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