Four Factors courtesy of Statsheet.com
Yet another tough Wolves game to watch as they could only muster one good quarter in the first followed by the superior Blazers outplaying them in the last 3.
Some quick thoughts and observations:
- Looking at the 4 factors above the Wolves are not excelling in any category. They’ve had some decent shooting games but their offensive rebounding from last year is gone (Kevin, we need you man) and their great free throw advantage from the preseason is also gone. Back are the Wolves who can nary get to the line.
- Is Corey Brewer really a defensive specialist? I’m starting to have my doubts. Looking at the fact that so far in 9 games his opponents average PER is right around 25 (the league average is 15, for comparison sake Corey is currently at 11) I’m not seeing him as a lock-down defender by any means. Put that together with his so far horrendous shooting and the verdict right now on his destiny is merely a nice energy guy off the bench. Tonight Corey’s +/- was -17 in 32 minutes and meanwhile Gomes was +12 in the same amount of time.
- Keep the patience coming Wolves fans in waiting for the triangle to do some good things for the team. Watching fairly closely the whole game I didn’t really see it work tonight. The Wolves had some decent ball movement in the first quarter but still are not making the right cuts most of the time. Jonny Flynn got just about all of his 15 points in isos off the dribble as did Jefferson his 14 points from isos in the paint.
- As for some good news, it looks like Jawai could be a nice alternative to the athletic Hollins off the bench for the Wolves and should get plenty of time to develop this season.
Next up is the Dallas Mavericks on Friday Night.
Corey is a good defender, he is just surrounded by 3-4 defensive black holes. It's hard to be a lock down defender when the rest of your team…shall we say less than apply themselves on defense (or offense for that matter)
To me it seems his opponent's PER has less to do with his ability as a defender and more to do with the lack of a team defense mentality.
Corey Brewer won't stop your team from have 140 hung on them (Ala golden state) but given a collective effort he definitely be disruptive and do a defensive job on an opponent.
Corey's no good. Really, it's not much more complicated than that. He hurts the team at both ends, but especially offensively. Give his minutes to Sessions.