As most of you know, Ronnie Brewer is a restricted free agent next summer. The Jazz and Brewer’s agent could not come to terms on a new deal this summer which has paved the way for Brewer to test the raging waters of the free agent market starting July 1 of next summer. So the question is, will the Jazz resign Brewer next summer, or will another team ante up for his game? I guess an even tougher question is should the Jazz resign him or match a higher offer?

I guess I need to start off this post by saying that it is waaaaaay to early to make a decision one way or the other, which is probably why the Jazz and Brewer couldn’t come to terms on a new deal. My guess is the Jazz want to see how Brewer plays this year before they make a long term commitment. On the one hand, he is young, athletic, and shows a lot of promise. On the other hand, he still needs to improve his game in some important areas. For one, he is excellent at disrupting the passing lanes on defense, but he isn’t very good at staying in front of his man, and he gets burned a lot of the time on the perimeter. His jump shot has improved a little bit over last year, but not enough to run plays to him consistently. Also, he is great at picking up garbage in the lane and making athletic moves to the hoop, but I still think Kyle Korver is the guy you want in the game during the final minutes in crunch time. Kyle can spread the floor better than Ronnie and he can keep the other teams’ defense honest away from the hoop (something we have seriously missed since Kyle got injured last year). In other words, he is a pretty good role player right now, but he is probably only worth five or six million a year, and he will most likely be offered more than that by another team. The Jazz will find themselves in the same situation they were with CJ Miles two summers ago and with Paul Millsap last summer, but this time I don’t think they will bite; not unless Ronnie becomes a little bit more than just a pretty good role player.

The point is, something’s gotta give somewhere in this organization. The Jazz can’t keep paying out big salaries for a team with one leader and a bunch of role players, and unfortunately, Ronnie might be the odd man out. I love his game, his work ethic, and his personality, but this team needs leadership, and especially if Wes Mathews continues to light ‘em up, Brewer might be a necessary salary cap casualty.

The season is still young, and a lot can happen between now and July, but this topic was on my mind this morning, so I thought I would throw it out there. Ronnie is good enough to where he could be a solid contributor for a lot of years, and the Jazz might kick themselves in the face for a long time for letting him go, but they have kind of made their bed financially, and if it comes down to keeping a specialist like Kyle Korver or Brewer, I think the Jazz might opt for KK unless something changes.

Let’s just hope he plays his guts out this year and forces the Jazz into a difficult decision next summer. I love RB but he’s going to have to show some serious improvement to warrant the kind of paycheck I think he is going to want to lock down.

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