By the time this post his the interweb chances are Corey Brewer will have been snatched up by the Spurs or the Celtics or some other team that already has an embarrassment of riches. Too bad the Lakers aren’t among any of the interested parties.
In the here and now, Brewer would add nothing to the quest to three-peat. Nor would he see much time on the court with a logjam at the 3 position once Matt Barnes is back up to speed. In addition, adding players this late in the season and asking them to dive right in and learn the triangle is a near impossible feat.
But this isn’t about the here and now. This is about the future.
While Brewer has never lived up to his draft stock he would seem an ideal fit for the Lakers.
Let’s first begin by saying his place on the roster would only be made available if either Devin Ebanks or Barnes aren’t around next year. So this is a bit of a hypothetical stretch but please bear with me.
To me Corey Brewer is a great fit for the Lakers. Coming out of Florida a lot of people tabbed his as a Scottie Pippen type. That doesn’t seem likely at this point but I can see some Trevor Ariza in him for sure.
Let’s start with what he’d bring to the Lake Show – namely athleticism. Go ahead and ask D-Fish about Brewer’s boosties. While the Lakers have gained toughness and a defensive mentality in Ron Artest they’ve lost an explosive player in the open court in Trevor’s departure.
In addition, Brewer brings another defensive presence capable of providing 15-20 solid minutes a night off the bench. Though his shooting is clearly a weakness, Brewer did hit a not-too-terrible 34% from three and 43% from the field while dropping 13 a night for the T-Wolves just a year ago.
All in all, this is just idle chatter. The Lakers have no interest in making roster moves now and adding Brewer would force D-League demotions and player inactivation just to make things fit. Still, I can’t help but think this could be an ideal situation for a guy like Corey to get his career back on track. After all, it’s not as if he’s going to be counted on to play major minutes. He’d find a suitable role as an energy guy off the bench and that has worked out pretty well for guys like Ariza and Shannon Brown in recent years.