Dillon Brooks is a great defender and a terrible offensive player. He is actually a decent spot up shooter, and boasts a career 40.7% from the corner 3. The problem is he takes so many forced shots that drag down his efficiency. The idea of the Rockets signing is that Udoka would work his magic and "reign him in", hoping to keep his shot attempts in check while focusing on his defensive prowess. The detractors of the signing believe Brooks will always be a shot chucker and point to a quote where he said he wanted a bigger role on offense. I am here to prove that this is all misunderstood, that Brooks is misunderstood as a player period. The Memphis Grizzlies have a clear hierarchy in their offense. Ja Morant and Desmond Bane are their 1st and 2nd options, taking 19.9 and 16.2 shots a game. Dillon Brooks and Jaren Jackson come in a tier below as their 3/4th option, taking 13.6 and 13 shots. After those 4 players there is a drastic drop off with no one else taking more than 9 shots a game. The Grizzlies were a top heavy team on offense which meant if any of the main offensive options got hurt, there would be a forced bump up in usage for the other options. I went through Dillon Brooks gamelog last year and lo and behold: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/brookdi01/gamelog/2023 Brooks played a total of 73 games last year He averaged 13.6 shots a game, he took more than 13 shots in 35 games In 26 of the 35 games they were missing 1 of the other top 4 players In 3 of the 35 games they were missing 2 of the other top 4 players In 3 of the 35 games they were missing 3 of the other top 4 players (Brooks was the only 1 that played) In 3 of the 35 games they were missing 0 of the other top 4 players In 32 of the 35 games that Dillon Brooks shot more than 13 shots, the Grizzlies were missing at least 1 of their top 4 scorers, bumping his usage up in turn. In all of last season for the Grizzlies, there was only 28 games that all 4 of these top options played together. In these 28 games, Dillon Brooks averaged 10.4 shots a game. The idea that Ime Udoka has to work his magic to "reign in" Brooks is a misnomer, Brooks only takes 10 shots a game already when the other options are healthy and he isn't forced to do more than he is capable of. Then when you consider the Rockets 3rd option, Vanvleet/Green/Sengun, whoever you choose, are all much more of a creator and scoring threat than Jaren Jackson who is a play finisher, this further knocks Brooks down the offensive hierarchy here. Then you add a developing Jabari, and Kevin Porter off the bench, Brooks is conceivably 6th in line when it comes to offensive options when he was 3rd in Memphis and forced to be the 2nd option on many nights due to injury. That is why I feel so much better about this signing now. I am confident that he will take around 10 shots a game, people were skeptical that Udoka could convince him to do that, when Brooks was already doing it on his own.
Also it's the manner in how he scores. If he takes 14 shots a game but the Rockets run one of the fastest paced offenses in the NBA and those 14 shots are just from brooks running to three point spots and the creators in the team like Sengun and Green just finding the open guy in a high pace high octane offense, I'm all for it. If it's 10 shots per game but most of those ten shots come from him ball stopping and trying to self create, it's still a problem even if it's just 10 shots.
Interesting read. I guess we will see. Too lazy to look at him playing to see what kind of shots he is taking. I am willing to give him a chance. As you mentioned since we have so many offensive options if he decides to Iso up everyone then we got a problem.
To me in an ideal situation, Dillon Brooks should only shoot slightly more than what PJ Tucker did with us, so maybe 7 shots a game. He is inefficient everywhere except at the rim and corner 3s. He can shoot some above the break 3s as spacing dictate but that's all he should be doing. The problem is that the ideal situation is never gonna happen, both due to his veteran stature on this team and being very hard to go from 13 shots to 7 shots. There's always going to be some sort of give and take in regards to his shot quantity similar to the Dwight situation. Where if you want him to play tough defense gotta keep him happy with some shots he doesn't deserve. To me that's where Udoka needs to work magic. Keep him happy and tenacious on defense while minimize his role on offense.
Nice analysis. I just keep coming back to how nicely things could fall into place when we can put an elite (and he is) defender on 80% of the top offensive players in the league.
we simply don’t know how things will play out. Memphis is a very well-coached, good team, with two star guards and a set-up pecking order. Brooks’ hero-ball may have been limited, but looked jarring on a winning team. For a team that is trying to win big, even a few busted possessions are a no-no… Rockets are historically bad. How are you going to make Dillon to have restraint and discipline and let nobodies take shots and usage? I think it’s more likely that he’ll come-in see where we at, and be like "this a mess, DB ‘s gotta fix it!"
Not worth the contract. Agreed he has a chance to be better than what he was in Memphis. Don’t love him or his stupid antics. Will support him cause I have to.
For his level of offensive ability, 13 shots is still way way too much. Even the 10 he averages when the core 4 are healthy is too much. He should be getting 6 or 7 shots max. Tyus Jones and Kyle Anderson, maybe even Zaire Williams and Roddy are better offensive players than him. If all 10 of those shots were PJ Tucker style stand and the corner and shoot shots then I won't mind but he insists on dribbling and taking pull-ups when a random dude on the street probably has a better handle than he does. Also, OP said nothing to explain how the "bigger role on offense" quote was misunderstood.
My self sabotage to make me believe he is a good fit is that he understands he got paid big bucks for his defense and that is enough. But reality has taught me to expect him trying to be LeBron next season.
I feel like I've been saying this since Brooks first got here - glad to hear others starting to see the light...or at the least the hope. As @CXbby mentioned(and by the way - great use of appropriate statistical context there) - he's not a bad offensive player once you take the 'stand and survey and then go into a self shot creation' out of his game - that's the same message Ime will be preaching to Jabari, KPJ, and Whitmore this year.
I think you want Jabari to try to expand some of his self creation particularly in the mid-high post area. He can just shoot over a lot of dudes.
He will have a chance but with so much competition, he needs to up his efficiency....he will be the 5th option here. He should be our Shane Battier type. DD
Great post I personally believe one of the ways to give Brooks "more of a role", while reducing him take bad shots and maximizing his strengths is by having a few set plays involving some of our best play makers that ends with him taking open threes. This is great for the play makers who need shooters and it helps Brooks feel more involved in the offense and most importantly than all that... it helps us win because we do have play creators and Brooks is a good open three point shooter. The NBA is FULL of egos and if you're willing to dedicate your body and mind to the defensive end as much as he is, I think that he deserves a little bit of that. Of course, because clutchfans overreact to comments sometimes, I'm not implying he should be our FGA leader or run an offense through him. Lol
