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Duke Ball

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This is a young man in need of a nickname.  Is it possible to call him The Duke (as in Ellington)? Yesterday during introductions, the PA guy tried saying he was from Duke.  Look at that giddy look on Gerald Henderson's face.  You know he enjoyed. it. 


Yesterday the Wolves Summer League team lost to the D-League select team 96-91.  During the first half Our Beloved Puppies actually looked like a functional SL team, with Jonny Flynn and Wayne Ellington displaying the types of games that will get fans excited about the regular season no matter how meaningless the summer action is.  Flynn was solid on the ball while showing a knack for pick and roll and Ellington, after a couple of minutes looking like he was thinking too damn hard about his shot, hit an easy layup and a couple of free throws before getting in rhythm and knocking down 8 of his 14 shots for the game (4-7 from 3). 

Flynn was especially impressive throughout the game.  On one occasion early in the game he was trailing on a transition opportunity and caught the ball with an opportunity to hit a wide-open 3.  He paused, let the defense react to him, and then kicked it across the court to a wide open Olesky Pecherov who drained the 3 himself.  A few plays later, Flynn had a similar opportunity with Pecherov open on the opposite wing and instead of making the cross court pass (which the defense was in a bit better position to react to) he called Pecherov over for a pick.  As soon as he saw some lax defense on the screen, he split the defenders, got into the lane, sought out contact and picked up the and-1.  Flynn ended the game with 4-9 shooting, 5 trips to the line, 14 assists and 6 turnovers.  He easily could have had 16-18 assists had some of his passes been directed at someone more along the lines of Al Jefferson and Kevin Love rather than the guy without a name on his jersey and big Garett Siler.

Ellington continued to show a bit more craftiness than expected with the ball in his hands.  He's not completely devoid of being able to put the ball on the deck while out on the perimeter and while he will likely never be able to get to the line with any sort of frequency, his athleticism and handle have been able to get him into the heart of the defense far more than I expected from a guy I thought of primarily as a long-range jump shooter. Flynn and Ellington displayed some chemistry out there against the D-League team and while we can't really read a whole lot into it, here's hoping it is something that they can build on throughout the year.  They really look like a natural pairing at the 1/2.  How funny would it be if the Wolves found their 2 guard combo with Flynn and Ellington rather than Flynn and Ricky Rubio

Speaking of Rubio, there were numerous reports that his agent Dan Fegan met with David Kahn in Vegas to discuss the situation.  One item mentioned that an NBA Deputy Commissioner was at the proceedings. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, will come out of this. 

Getting back to the game, once again we were treated to another questionable performance from Corey Brewer.  Was it better than his first outing? Yes.  However, the improvement between game 1 to game 2, despite the injury, is a fairly solid analogy to the difference between Brewer's first and second years with the club.  His first year was soooooooo putrid that it was pretty hard not to come out not smelling like roses even with a modest improvement in year 2.  Here's the problem with Brew: He's going to be a perimeter player.  No matter how quick of a pace the Wolves are going to play at, and no matter how much time he spends off the ball (which should be a lot), he still needs to a) be able to handle the rock when it comes his way and b) hit the corner 3.  He looks like a serviceable player moving at 100 mph and in transition but in the 1/2 court setting, he belonged on the other team yesterday.  I get that this is Summer League and he's coming back from an injury but that should have nothing to do with his complete inability to handle the damn ball. You can't have a 2 guard without even a modest handle.  This is the last I'll write about Brewer during the SL because I do agree with the notion that if he is going to be an effective player it will be through effort, rebounding, transition play and, most importantly, defense. I also subscribe to the idea that he's something of a glue guy and he's one of those players that thrives while doing the cliched "little things".  I'm holding out hope that he can get back to his relative form before the beginning of the season and we can finally see what he can do at a higher level.  Perhaps he's just one of those guys that is dependent on the level of his competition.  However, and with all of that being said, he has to be somewhat effective in the situations where the ball does come his way in the 1/2 court and that isn't looking too promising at the moment...injury or not.  And that is something to be worried about.

Unfortunately, the most disappointing story of the day was the end of any hope or thought that Ben Woodside had a shot at this level.  As a 24 year old point with zero size and athleticism I was really hoping that at the very least his offensive shiftiness would translate just a little to the SL setting.  It didn't.  On top of that, his defense was beyond exposed.  The guy was a college monster but at the end of the day he'll end up being more Eric Crouch than Peyton Manning.  Here's hoping he gets a shot in Europe. 

Well, that about does it for this wrap-up.  Remember that Wyn will be covering the remaining games from Vegas so if there is anything that you would like us to follow up on or cover, please leave a message in the comments or shoot one of us a line. 

Until later.

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Comments

Display:

re: Nickname--How about Robert Smith?

Did you see those chicken legs in that pic?

"Come on Eddie, let's get serious."

by biggity2bit on Jul 14, 2009 8:50 AM CDT reply actions  

I think...

his NC Teammates called him “Weezie.”

by Grover M on Jul 14, 2009 10:17 AM CDT reply actions  

How about Beef Ellington

by Ebomb on Jul 14, 2009 11:01 AM CDT reply actions  

Brewer

As the resident Brewer defender on hoopus, I think we all have to let this guy get his legs underneath him before evaluating his play. He will have a role with this team, as he is about the only guy who can guard athletic 2-3-4s on the team. Also, I feel he will be great in transition and will flourish when playing alongside Flynn and Rubio. At first he may be more of a defensive specialist, but this is a HUGE team need.

by DR_JPK on Jul 14, 2009 12:03 PM CDT reply actions  

do we have a shot chart for brewer? I only saw parts but I did see brew knock down a baseline shot. once he gets his legs under him and in a real flow I am not worried about the jumper. the ballhandling is effective but is the drunk dribbler.

by revprodeji on Jul 14, 2009 12:04 PM CDT via mobile reply actions  

You are the only person in the world

who doesn’t think Corey’s shot is a red flag.

by feral on Jul 14, 2009 1:31 PM CDT up reply actions  

In Fairness

His EFG% on jumpers was only 2.5% worse than the LMA’s. And he serves as a great floor-spacer- I guess. I tend to think he’s also improved as a shooter myself considering shots I saw him make during Summer League him not even having the confidence to try before. Brewer also shots 74% at the line- which is solid.

BTW (Rev, Andy G., and Myself) have defended Brewer here more than once. I would question the wisdom of him guarding non-perimeter Oriented 4’s but I’m guessing this is what you meant.

by Jose Cordoba on Jul 14, 2009 1:58 PM CDT up reply actions  

it’s not as much the dribbling that is the problem with his ballhandling, it was more the times he received a pass close to the basket and instead of doing some kind of move with it he fumbles and really looks out of sync … and thus he loses the ball…

We got Rubio!

by Wim (Belgium) on Jul 14, 2009 2:56 PM CDT up reply actions  

well put..

….he’s uncomfortable with every aspect of handling the ball.

The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com

by Stop-n-Pop on Jul 14, 2009 3:20 PM CDT up reply actions  

Off the top of my head I remember twice that he got the ball near the basket and did something good with it. once on the break he was the fly on the left side and got hit with a nice pass. He moved the ball in the air and laid it up nicely.

The other time he got it and reserve lay-up.

Kid is coming back from a nasty injury. Timing, conditioning, etc will take time. He looks very promising I believe. So much of shooting is his legs and once those get back in game rhythm he will be fine.

by revprodeji on Jul 14, 2009 4:15 PM CDT up reply actions  

What's he getting back to, again?

“Game rhythm” is not a term I would apply to Mr. Brewer, much as I like the kid personally.

by feral on Jul 14, 2009 5:38 PM CDT up reply actions  

Regardless of what you think about his skill-set it should be expected that his legs physically need to get back into game shape. Regardless of if you are michael Jordan or Jana Jordan if you are playing basketball after a major injury you will need time to adjust to game pace.

Also, regardless of how many jumpers he shot in practice or during recovery, it will take time for that to transition to a game tempo. Not saying he will be a Wally shooter but I expect his shooting to get better as he gets his feet wet.

by revprodeji on Jul 15, 2009 1:14 AM CDT reply actions  

It's the ball skills

He really doesn’t have them. So far in SL there have been multiple occasions where he loses control of the ball, dribbles out ahead of himself, can’t control it in traffic with bigger guys around him and so on and so forth. At Florida he was able to be the glue guy because his speed and length are really kind of abnormal. His lack of professional-level ball skills was hidden by his really outstanding combo of length, speed and effort. However, in a game that is based on length, speed and power, he’s already behind the curve with his body and he doesn’t have enough left to make up for the lack of ball skills. This will especially be pronounced at the 2. He is going to need to play amazingly good defense for this thing to balance out or figure out how to become a better player on the ball when it does come his way.

That being said, the proof will be in the regular season pudding and he’s the type of guy that will be measured by adj +/-, turnover and rebound rates, and situational shooting. Does the team do well when he’s out there, how well does he shoot the corner 3s, how well does he shoot under 10 seconds off of the shot clock (i.e. transition), does he turn it over and rebound a lot in the possessions he gets?

The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com

by Stop-n-Pop on Jul 15, 2009 8:30 AM CDT up reply actions  

Corey Brewer - Not Very Good

Look at the Corey Brewer analysis at:

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/players/hollinger?playerId=3191&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fplayers%2fhollinger%3fplayerId%3d3191

Most damning comment — “most similar by age — Vincent Yarbrough.” Wow.

Go to basketball-reference.com and compare Corey’s stats to those of Brian Cardinal. My conclusion? We already have the real Brian Cardinal, why do we need his younger equivalent?

by Hoops Maven on Jul 16, 2009 11:10 AM CDT reply actions  

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