Wolves deal Brewer again, this time to Houston for picks and cash

BOSTON – Four years ago come February, the Timberwolves traded away Corey Brewer in a season that ended up with him winning an NBA title in Dallas.

On Friday afternoon, they dealt him away for a second time, this time to a contending Houston team that sent back young shooter Troy Daniels, two second-round draft picks and cash.

The Wolves also sent away injured veteran center Ronny Turiaf's expiring $1.6 million contract to Philadelphia in a three-way swap that sent former Wolves guard Alexey Shved to Houston.

The trade sheds Brewer's $4.7 million salary, saves the Wolves $1.1 million they owe Turiaf and brings back cash, too. It also opens a starting spot for Shabazz Muhammad, at least until injured Kevin Martin returns, and with Daniels' arrival addresses the team's real need for better shooting.

It provides Brewer the possibility of winning a second NBA championship ring as well while the Wolves moved one step closer toward completely rebuilding their roster with youth.

"Last time I went to Texas, it worked out," Brewer said Friday afternoon. "Make it 2-for-2 in Texas, the Texas two-step."

Brought back 18 months ago by a Wolves team that drafted him seventh overall by 2007, Brewer leaves for a second time now.

In going, Brewer joins Rockets coach Kevin McHale, the man who drafted him seventh overall seven years ago and coached him for more than four months to end the 2008-09 season. He also knows Rockets assistants J.B. Bickerstaff, Greg Buckner and T.R. Dunn from his time in Minnesota.

"When you don't want to leave somewhere, it helps when you get traded to a team where the guy coaching drafted me with the seventh pick," Brewer said. "That's my guy. I love Mac."

Saunders said Muhammad's emergence, Daniel's youth and shooting, two picks and money gained both from the Rockets and by dealing away Turiaf's contract convinced him this was the best deal he'd get. He said now was the time to deal Brewer to a contender before he could opt out of his contract this summer.

"First-round picks are tough to get," said Saunders, who traded a first-round pick obtained in the Kevin Love trade to Philadelphia for Thaddeus Young last summer. "You just can't get them anymore unless it's a total superstar. … I just think the circumstance of our organization changed. We have a different landscape now. We thought it was the right time to do it."

Daniels, 23, is a 6-4 shooting guard undrafted out of VCU but whom one NBA assistant coach calls the purest shooter he has ever seen. Daniels made the go-ahead three-pointer in the Rockets' playoff series with Portland last spring. He is signed through next season, at less than $1 million per season each year.

"We're getting a guy who can shoot the basketball, and what's been our thing? Shooting the basketball," said Wolves guard Mo Williams, who played for Portland in that playoff game. "Who's to say, does it make us better? I don't know because we're losing a guy who has a lot of intangibles, but it's a good consolation with what Flip's trying to do."

Brewer said Rockets players James Harden, Patrick Beverley and others urged him to join their team before a game at Target Center two weeks ago.

"I just want to play basketball, I want to win," said Brewer, who has won two NCAA titles and one NBA title. "It's all about winning. The game is more enjoyable when you're winning games and trying to win a championship. I have room for lots more rings."

Brewer's departure leaves the Wolves without their most energetic — and smiley — player as well as one of their relatively few veteran locker-room leaders.

"This locker room just got a lot quieter," Martin said.

"It's tough for the few veteran guys in here because that was our little crew," Williams said. "We did a lot together on the road, in each other's rooms playing dominos. To lose somebody in our group like that, we made a little joke today: It's like someone left the group and went solo, like Michael Jackson."