Jones Summer Scouting Report: Kareem Rush

I’m going to have the opportunity to watch several NBA players and prospects work out throughout the summer. So check back from time to time to get my own review on various players that I witness work out throughout the summer.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to watch Kareem Rush work out. The former Laker sharpshooter is a free agent this off-season, and will be the perfect fit for any team that lacks outside shooting. Although Kareem has shown that he is capable of doing things other than shooting in the past, in this work out he focused solely on showcasing his outside shooting touch. His left handed touch reminds me a lot of Michael Redd, in terms of form and accuracy. Obviously he is not the type of all around player that Redd is, but believe me their outside shots are very, very similar. In the portion of the work out I attended, Rush put up at least 500 shots in the workout, and it’s safe to say that he made at least 350-400 of them. And this wasn’t just him standing still and shooting. His trainer had him running a variety of drills that had him moving all over the place before he would have to catch the ball and then release. Let’s just say I left the gym rather impressed with Mr. Rush.

Kareem was cut at the end of the season because of some bickering between Bernie Bickerstaff (no pun intended) and himself. Bickerstaff claims that Kareem did not fit into the Bobcats system because he did not work hard enough. I find that hard to believe since the guy has been in the gym every morning since the end of the season trying to get himself into better shape. As well, his best friend from his Laker days was Luke Walton, and the two of them were known to be gym rats. I don’t know what the thinking was behind Bickerstaff’s move, because there were only 12 games left in the season and the team held an option on Kareem for the next season, so all they had to do was not re-sign him at the end of the season. But by vindictively cutting a guy with 12 games left in the season and accompanying it with disparaging comments, all he did was possibly harm the kid’s future earning potential. Which is sad because it seems like Kareem suffered more from a lack of consistent minutes than a lack of consistent effort. If you take a look at Kareem’s stats prior to the getting injured in January, you can see that he could see that he was a pretty consistent double figure scorer, and that he was playing thirty plus minutes per night. After his injury, he came back only to see his minutes were being filled by Ray Felton, Gerald Wallace, and Jumaine Jones. Instead of playing Kareem in the same fashion he did prior to his injury, Bickerstaff started to play Kareem very inconsistently. He would go from playing 20+ minutes one night, to less than 10 minutes the next night. There is no way a player can stay consistent if you are jerking him around like that. And if you look at his performances when he played 25+ minutes you’ll see that he was consistently a positive contributor in those games. What I don’t understand is how you can cut a guy who had just scored 21 points and shot 8-15 from the floor two games before you cut him. I mean these are the Bobcats we’re talking about here, so it’s not like they were loaded with so much talent that there was room to let Kareem go. Something just seems really fishy about the entire situation.

Despite how his season ended, Kareem seems to be handling himself in a professional manner. Rather than throw shots at Bickerstaff and the Bobcats, Kareem headed right to the gym and started preparing himself to be picked up by another team for next season. After watching Kareem work out yesterday I couldn’t help but think about what a help he could have been to teams like the Lakers, Heat, Pistons, or Cavs, that seemingly were one shooter away from being much better teams than they already were/are. The Suns would also be a good fit for him since they are looking to add depth and his three point shooting ability would be fully utilized with them. Playing along side Nash and Diaw, all he would have to do is spot up and be ready to knock his shot down. The Lakers would probably be the most ideal fit, since he already has played with them, and has fans in Phil Jackson and Luke Walton. The Lakers desperately need an outside shooter at the guard position. If Kareem could work on his defense and handle guarding smaller guards every night, I think he would be a candidate to start next to Kobe Bryant next year. Kareem knows the triangle and would be the perfect three point threat for the weak side of the Lakers triangle offense. As well, imagine if Kareem were on the Heat right now. I fully believe that team would be in a completely different situation against Dallas if they had someone to relieve pressure off of Shaq by being a consistent three point shooting threat. In other words, Kareem has nothing to worry about, because with the dearth of outside shooting in the league, someone is going to sign the kid.