Does Corey Brewer prove the Philadelphia 76ers bench is even worse than expected?
Corey Brewer has undoubtedly been a revelation for the Philadelphia 76ers since they signed him. Or are the bench players actually so bad, he stands out more than he should?
There is no question that Corey Brewer has given the Philadelphia 76ers a real boost since signing a 10-day contract on Jan. 15. The 6-foot-9, 186-pound veteran, now on his second 10-dayer, has provided intensity, hustle and badly needed defense from the wing position.
“The Drunken Dribbler” has certainly become a great feel-good story and a fan favorite. The crowd at the Wells Fargo Center quickly took up the chant ‘Cor-ey Brew-er’ when he made a play.
And for good reason.
During the first three months of the season, no NBA team wanted him, so Brewer sat at home, played with his kids and did a lot of running until general manager Elton Brand picked him after participating in a mass team tryout.
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Despite barely knowing the players, let alone the plays, when Jimmy Butler hurt his wrist and had to miss games aganst three of the toughest teams in the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs, he was thrown right into the starting lineup.
The Sixers won two of the three (and having Joel Embiid and Wilson Chandler sit vs. Denver, one could argue they virtually forfeited that one).
When asked why Brewer was starting, coach Brett Brown replied “Why not?”
In those three starts, Brewer averaged 16.7 points, 2.7 steals and 3.3 rebounds while playing stellar defense against the likes of James Harden and DeMar DeRozan.
He also has an infectious personality and Brown thinks he fits perfectly with the team’s culture. Embiid, after the Spurs game, said he is happy to have him, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia:
"He just brings something different, that energy. When he goes on the floor he has a role and he executes it. He knows what his role is and that is to, I guess, annoy and play great defense on the other team’s best player, and he’s been doing that for the past two games. He got James frustrated last game and I think he did a pretty good job in the second half against DeMar. We’re going to need him to keep doing that. He should definitely stick around."
Brewer is not some young up-and-comer being brought up from the G-League like a Shake Milton or a player who had benefitted from seasoning overseas like Jonah Bolden. He is 32 years old, won a ring with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011, has been in the league since 2007 and the 76ers are his seventh team.
So Brewer is not some hidden gem the Sixers discovered that no one else knew about.
These facts bring up an interesting point from Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice:
"We’ve talked since the beginning of the year about how harmful their bench has been. Consider this: Brewer walked in off the street and has immediately made a difference. You can cut that one way or another, and from my view, it shows how easily this team could hit a new level if they can just get one or two more legitimate rotation players for the stretch run."
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The obvious question is: If a jouneyman player like Brewer, who 30 NBA teams (including the Sixers, who remember had an open roster spot since early November) sat around for three months can just hop on a team and immediately have a major impact, what does it say about the rest of the squad outside of the starting lineup?
It is a nice story that Brett Brown has given Brewer some starts, but what does it say that he felt like a guy on a 10-day contract, who had not played a single second in the previous two games, deserved to start over someone in the regular rotation — and proceeded to outplay all said rotation players.
That the 76ers do not have a strong bench is not exactly breaking news. In the latest NBA rankings they are 22nd out of 30 overall but against playoff teams (i.e. teams with usually strong benches) they are an abominable 27th.
We could go player by player among the subs and list their faults but, as a group, one major flaw stands out: ZERO are any good at defense.
(Note: Jonah Bolden shows potential but, as the Denver game showed, he still fouls too much and has a lot to learn.)
In the glorious Summer of ’18, when, according to managing partner Josh Harris, we had all these great basketball minds collaborating so well he did not think it was urgent to hire a general manager, they all forgot that teams play half the time on the defensive end. (They also forgot to get a legitimate backup center and ignored some free agents who would have helped)
When Butler went down, Brown’s true alternative, outside of Brewer, was an array of human turnstiles.
Now, it must be said that three players who would help the Sixers depth tremendously are on the roster but hurt in Justin Patton, Markelle Fultz and Zhaire Smith. All could be back in a month or so and, although extremely inexperienced, would at least bring some athleticism with Smith and Fultz and size in Patton.
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The Corey Brewer Experience has, hopefully, taught management an important lesson. If the team really wants to meet its stated goal of making the NBA finals, they can not have a roster filled with key players who are being outplayed by a guy on a 10-day contract who had not been in a real game for eight months.