Saturday, July 17, 2010

Bulls Lose Out on J.J. Reddick, Turn to Ronnie Brewer

The Orlando Magic have decided to match the Chicago Bulls' offer sheet to J.J. Reddick, keeping the Duke SG in Orlando for the next 3 years at $19 million. In reaction to this decision, the Bulls quickly signed former Grizzly Ronnie Brewer to a 3-year, $12.5 million deal.

The Breakdown
It was 50/50 whether Orlando would retain Reddick, but they decided they would keep him just before their 7-day deadline. Reddick will return and fill the same role he's had of coming off the bench to back up Vince Carter. Orlando appears to view Reddick as the future at SG, so he could end up being more valuable down the line. But in 2010-11, you can expect about the same production from Reddick as last season.

Once Chicago was informed of Orlando's intentions, they quickly jumped on Ronnie Brewer. Brewer is a specialist in steals. This is a guy you can pick up in the late stages of your draft and he'll snatch 1.5 steals a game. He doesn't give you too much else in other categories, but he takes a lot of high percentage shots which keeps his FG% around 50%.

Brewer has a good chance of starting at SG. With the Bulls already having the offensive firepower of Boozer, Deng, and Rose in the starting line up, Brewer would a be a nice defensive cog to have out there with the starting unit. I expect him to be the opening day starter, but I still feel he'll split minutes right down the middle with Korver. With Korver being a long range specialist and Brewer being more of a defensive player, I think each will be thrown into specific situations that fit their skill sets. One thing to keep in mind is that Brewer is coming off a serious hamstring injury that caused him to miss nearly the entire 2nd half of the season. Hopefully, that injury doesn't affect him this coming year.

My recommendation on Brewer is only to snatch him up late in a category-based league if you need help with steals. In non-category formats, he would be a borderline draft pick in a standard league and draftable late in deeper leagues.

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