Brandon Rush stepped up to the plate this season for the Minnesota Timberwolves after the injury of Zach LaVine.
The Minnesota Timberwolves asked Brandon Rush to step up in 2016-17 after a season-ending knee injury to starting shooting guard Zach LaVine. Rush showed up for the task as he played more minutes than any of his recent seasons. In fact, you have to go back to his 2011-12 season with the Golden State Warriors to see a year where he played more minutes than this season.
Brandon Rush is a player that has never taken that next step in his career. Now at 31 years old, he is best suited as a bench player. During the 2011-12 season with the Warriors he averaged 9.8 points a game, shooting 45 percent from three. Unfortunately, everything about his career slowly faded away since that season. This season was his first opportunity to play quality minutes in a while.
This season Brandon Rush played in 47 games for the Wolves. He started in 33 of those games. His starts were a direct result to the injury of Zach LaVine.
2016-17 Stats
Rush rated as the eighth-best player on the team this season. He did not have impressive numbers for a starter or even as a role player.
That does not automatically equate to a bad season under the circumstances, however. He didn’t necessarily need to put up big numbers playing with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, who are offensive machines. Some people even felt that the Wolves were more effective without LaVine.
Below are Rush’s stats from this season.
| Season ▲ | Age | G | GS | MP | FG% | 3P% | 2P% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 31 | 47 | 33 | 21.9 | .374 | .386 | .356 | .722 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 4.2 |
| Career | 481 | 163 | 22.0 | .426 | .402 | .447 | .706 | 2.9 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 6.8 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/8/2017.
It was a little disappointing to see Rush average the exact same amount of points as last season despite playing 7.2 more minutes a game. Likewise, he averaged fewer rebounds per game this season as well.
What Rush did do well was shoot the ball and make teams somewhat respect the Timberwolves from three. He shot the second highest three-point percentage on the team after Zach LaVine. That made him the biggest three-point threat when he was on the court for most of the season .
Role for Brandon Rush heading into next season
Brandon Rush will officially become an unrestricted free agent once the offseason starts. If the Wolves re-sign him it should be only as an insurance policy to a recovering Zach LaVine — and that is only if they do not find a better player during free agency or the 2017 NBA Draft.
In conclusion, Brandon Rush is not a starter in the NBA. He was forced to start due to an injury and did a good job filling in by not doing too much. His production didn’t increase despite a spike in minutes.
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Because of that, the Minnesota Timberwolves would be wise to look for another backup for Zach LaVine. If the Wolves are unsuccessful at signing someone else, Brandon Rush will be good insurance policy to bring back for another year.