Corey Brewer bought out (updates) Celtics interested

[j804]

Do you guys think Danny is working his magic on Brewer right now?

No news I've seen yet on him

[celticinorlando]

i am going to say dallas

[clover]

Did not realize this: the Knicks also waived Kelenna Azubuike.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=6171374

If he were 100% healthy, I'd be interested in Buike. Then again, if he were 100% healthy, I doubt he'd have been cut.

What's the story with him?  I see he's played an average of 4 games a year for his first five years in the NBA.

[Bankshot]

Did not realize this: the Knicks also waived Kelenna Azubuike.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=6171374

If he were 100% healthy, I'd be interested in Buike. Then again, if he were 100% healthy, I doubt he'd have been cut.

What's the story with him?  I see he's played an average of 4 games a year for his first five years in the NBA.

Let's stay away from injury prone players.  We have enough.

[heitingas]

A. Sherrod Blakely: Right now, the #Celtics are focused on Corey Brewer. There's a strong belief that he is the final piece to this championship puzzle. now

[droponov]

Did not realize this: the Knicks also waived Kelenna Azubuike.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=6171374

If he were 100% healthy, I'd be interested in Buike. Then again, if he were 100% healthy, I doubt he'd have been cut.

What's the story with him?  I see he's played an average of 4 games a year for his first five years in the NBA.

Career ending injury, most probably. Very hard for pro athletes to come back from the kind of injury he had. Especially guys who rely on athleticism like Azubuike. He hasn't played in 17 months or so.

[Lucky17]

A. Sherrod Blakely: Right now, the #Celtics are focused on Corey Brewer. There's a strong belief that he is the final piece to this championship puzzle. now

Excellent. I can take missing out on him, as long as we make a strong effort to sign him.

[Mencius]

Brewer to speak to Doc today.  Hope it goes well.

Corey Brewer, who was waived on Monday by the Knicks, is expected to speak to Rick Carlisle, Gregg Popovich and Doc Rivers on Tuesday.

The Mavericks, Spurs and Celtics are all interested in signing Brewer, who was a lottery pick in 2007.

Via Adrian Wojnarowski/Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter)

[misha]

A. Sherrod Blakely: Right now, the #Celtics are focused on Corey Brewer. There's a strong belief that he is the final piece to this championship puzzle. now

and also: Competition is very tight for Brewer. I think the #Mavs are going to be the team to beat for his services.

[RJ87]

  While I wouldn't mind getting Brewer, keep in mind that he was bought out by a playoff team, not an also-ran team like the Clips or the Nets. If he was good enough to start on a contender then he wouldn't be available.

The Knicks are clueless. Once upon a time Bruce Bowen had to find a job in the Belgian league.

This a good article on Brewer:
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/25595/the-knicks-could-use-a-good-geek

I agree with most of it, but especially this part:

Smart teams, I'd wager, have been watching Corey Brewer for a long time for this exact reason.

And what they have been seeing is a defensive show. Once you clue in to the guy, it's glaringly obvious that no one on the court is defending like him. He's narrow, long, strong, quick and feisty -- which is a perfect set of attributes to fight over a screen. He has great hands. He goads non-shooters into shooting, and keeps great shooters from making a catch. He talks constantly on defense -- he's not only in the right place, but he knows where everybody else is supposed to be, too.

If we lived in a world where defense was valued as much as offense, YouTube would be filled with highlights of Brewer making things unusually tough for Manu Ginobili, Kevin Durant, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and others.

I can hear what the Knicks are thinking: In Mike D'Antoni's offense, they need to space the floor, they need to give their playing time to shooters. Even here, just looking at his career 31 percent 3-point field goal percentage is not enough. His 384 career 3 attempts include dozens of end-of-quarter heaves. He might lead the league in those. And there's reason to suspect he has the potential to punish defenses that leave him alone: Last year, even with all those Hail Marys, he had a strech of months shooting better than 40 percent from downtown, setting a Minnesota franchise record most consecutive games with a made 3, and prompting John Hollinger to call Brewer perhaps the most improved NBA shooter ever.

The entire time he's also (like his Gator teammates Al Horford and Joakim Noah, with whom he won two national titles, and lost just one tournament game of any kind in three years) relentlessly cheery and supportive of his teammates, racing all over the place to deliver high-fives and to pick up fallen teammates. He has stayed upbeat while being the injured and forgotten benchwarmer on a terrible team. In other words, there's no reason to suspect he'd be a threat to any team's chemistry.

There are NBA teams that have really embraced advanced statistical analysis. The list is long, and is headed by the likes of Houston, Dallas, Boston, Cleveland, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. If the Knicks were among them, I can't imagine they'd have let Brewer go. And now that he's free to sign with a team really values him, I'll make two predictions: Brewer will sign with a team that is sophisticated in its use of stats, and over the next couple of years, he will make that team better.

I like that article, I think it sums up perfectly what he brings to the table: great defense.

For most of his career, he was a defensive stopper on a team in Minnesota that wasn't a defensive oriented squad.

I don't know if the Knicks are that opposed to playing defense or what, but it was a really bad move on their part. I mean really, they cut Brewer but kept Bill Walker? Seriously?

[Bankshot]

I really hope we get him.  Take most likely the best defender on the market away from other contenders.

[The DarkPassenger]

And let the Isiah Thomas era begin... again. I think that Danny thinks well of Brewer and thinks he has some talent he can bring based on the fact that he was trying to trade for him.

He is a good defensive guy but offense is horrible... just what the Celtics need... oh wait they wanted scoring off the bench. HHMMMM. No but honestly not a bad idea to sign him just because I'd rather have him than some d-league bench filler.

[slamtheking]

He'd be a solid pickup for this year and going forward.  He's not a starter but definitely someone we could bring off the bench to stop the other team's scoring wings, fill a lane on a fast break with Rondo/West and be a solid lockerroom kind of guy.  for that matter, put him on the court with Bradley in the future and watch the mess they make for the other team's bench.

Doc praises D.  This kid emphasizes it.

The selling point for him should be the C's title chances this year and a future where he could play on a team that emphasizes his strength on D going forward with a like-minded backcourt of Rondo and Bradley.  having another solid young player like Green on the team should give him something to think about considering Spurs and Dallas don't have the same youth to get excited about playing with.

[Drucci]

Alex Kennedy tweets :

Corey Brewer has narrowed down his options to Boston, San Antonio and Dallas, according to a league source.

So we're back to the 3 initial teams but nothing really new except we're still in the hunt.

[35Lewis]

We will need his 6 fouls when we face Miami in the playoffs because Wade and Lebron are bound to get 30 free throw a game.