Former Timberwolves forward Corey Brewer joined Chris Vernon – of the Ringer.com – on the Vertical Podcast earlier this month.
The former standout at the University of Florida had two stints with the Timberwolves. Minnesota drafted Brewer 7th overall in 2007 but was traded four years later to the Dallas Mavericks where he won an NBA Championship.
Brewer re-signed with the Wolves in 2013 and spent a year and a half here, but was traded again in 2015.
The 30-year-old enjoyed his second tenure with Minnesota, when the Wolves were the closest they’ve been to playoffs in over 12 years, winning 40 games.
However the first one didn’t go so well as the Timberwolves averaged just 19 wins from 2007-2011.
He reflected with Vernon about how Kurt Rambis – The Timberwolves coach from 2009-2011 – tried to implement the triangle in Minnesota. Let’s just say Brewer wasn’t exactly a fan of the system that was in place.
“I felt like we were just out there running around,” Brewer said during his first few seasons.
“Then we tried to run the triangle one year. Come on now, on our team? There was no way we were going to run the triangle. We tried; it looked more like the octagon.”
“The triangle didn’t work for us. Jonny Flynn at the point guard and he was more of a pick-and-roll guy, Johnny needs to play more in that system, I think. But do you do what coach says.”
Now Brewer did say he’s a fan of the triangle, “You got to have certain players, if you have certain players, the triangle’s amazing. We didn’t have the right pieces.”
The triangle offense has been very effective when ran by players such as: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
Unfortunately Minnesota had Flynn, Brewer and Al Jefferson in their triangle. So there’s a bit of a drop off there…
The full interview can be found here.
