PROTECT THE PAINT

Corey Brewer is playing out of his head lately. He scored 25 point last night on 10-17 shooting, 2-4 from downtown. In addition to 25 points, Brewer contributed 5 steals, 6 assists 5 rebounds and 1 block. How can these numbers be possible from a guy averaging 8 PPG for his career? A fluke? When looking at his past 7 games, one would think otherwise:

18 .0 PPG, .487  FG%, 3.0 RPG, 3.3 APG, 2.7 SPG

Brewer kept Minnesota in the game last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He managed to somewhat contain the uncontainable Kevin Durant. To help offset Durant’s 31 he poured in 25, which exceeds anything imaginable when predicting this match up.

Brewer is living up to his lottery pick expectations. (Credit: picapp.com)

If Brewer can avoid disappearing offensively, as he occasionally does,  he might just to live up to  the hype surrounding being the 7^th overall selection of the 2007 NBA Draft. This season he has started all 43 game,  averaging 31:06 MPG, 12.7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1.5 steals.

This is leap from his first 2 seasons, closer to 1 full season at 84 total games. In that span he averaged 6 points a game shooting a sub .400 FG%.

After sitting out the majority of last season due to knee surgery, he has returned with offensive tenacity his reputable defensive skills further refined. He is considered Minnesota’s defensive stopper by head coach Kurt Rambis:

“He really likes it when we stick him on a guy and say, ‘Go shut that guy down.’ You know Kevin is not going to overpower Corey, so it’s a good matchup length-wise and height-wise. Corey did a real good job on him.”

As Brewer’s offensive game continues to improve his role will become more pivotal for Timberwolves’ future. He has eclipsed 20 points in 3 out of his last 5 games, and it appears to have emerged this month.

If he continues down this path of offensive brilliance, David Kahn can thank Kevin McHale for at least on of his moves while McHale was still the GM. Honestly, back in 2007, who didn’t think McHale was absolutely crazy to select Brewer with the 7th overall pick?

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