People complaining about Brooks, again, look at how much better teh Rockets are when he's on the floor and particularly look at how he's become the go-to post defender. He did WORK on Towns a few days ago. Made him work very hard for his 17 points on 17 shots. 3 TO 0 assists. The game before, Towns had 21 (also on bad shooting, 18 shots) but 7 assists (assuming he was doubled, but didnt' see the game) The game before that, Towns had 44 vs. Miami. Like I said previously, the Rockets Net Rating is +10.7 with Brooks, that is the highest of any regular. ORTNG 112.3 to DRTG 101.7 Only Eason is close with +10.5 I know we all hate brooks but he is earning every single minute so far this year on Defense alone. He's still shooting ok (not great, but at least OK) from deep and it's really hard to keep him off the floor.
I don’t hate Brooks and he is playing really good defense to start the year. He looks in better shape than last year, so maybe he can keep it up. My problem is every moment he is on the floor he is taking away development time for Amen, Tari, Sheppard, and Cam. We are not championship calibre this year. Much of this year should be spent on phasing Amen and Tari in and FVV and Brooks out. Amen should be in 30+ every night and should be the assigned stopper for any player 1-4 that is carrying a team. He absolutely shut down Doncic and Brunson when he was one on one with them. He would have done the same with Lamelo had he been given the chance. I sincerely believe we would be undefeated so far had Ime ran his rotations better.
If you really know Brooks, he would not keep this up. He then goes into this chucker mode when he feels elated and aloof. In case he has finally matured, you can always let him come off the pine as the specialist defender against star players.
I don’t think he has been a chucker on this team. He is just not a very good offensive player. If his spot up isn’t working he is basically wasted space on the offensive side of the ball. His defense has been really good this year, especially against Wemby on the perimeter and he has been rebounding better than usual. I suspect, like you do, that he will regress as the year goes by. Hopefully, they are just highlighting him for a trade later on.
I don't understand where the "he would not keep this up" comes from - he is shooting 34.2% from deep vs. a career average of..34.5% - he's shooting 34.2 vs. 36 last year on 5.4 v 5.1 shots per game. Seems pretty much in-line with what we'd expect. Anyway though, the point isn't really to lionize Brooks as some elite shooter, but he and Eason are - sadly - the two best catch & shoot guys on the team, currently, not counting Jalen. Jabari started the season slowly again. FVV sucks now at shooting deep. Thompson has improved from mortifying to ghastly despite mostly sticking to corner 3s (and he destroys spacing in the halfcourt, it's awful when he's anywhwere but the baseline). Whitmore has been a disaster this year. Sheppard is somehow afraid to shoot 3's so far as well, so that hasn't materialized. There's no way Ime's going to sit his best all-around 5 position veteran defender and at least - competent - outside shooter when the ohter options are so flawed. He's trying to make the playoffs.
He can get to his spots in the league and he is like the 3rd option on Team Canada, that is where he draws his confidence and arrogance from.
Okay, my bad, Iemme clear this, he is not alway going to be this docile, he will get himself ejected or do some weird shet.
I don't like this line of thinking. The collective group of 5 on the floor does not operate better when it is 5 young guys who all need time, touches and development. Having veterans on the floor who know their roles and operate within them allows the other youngsters Jalen Green and Alpi a framework to play within. I don't think putting Amen on the floor more with Jalen and Alpi makes the collective unit play more consistently, which is what Jalen and Alpi need to continue growing.
If we didn't have Tari and Amen, very few people would complain about Brooks' PT. Udoka can't hide those two young guys anymore. He has to find minutes for them.
Amen could use another 5 mpg and Tari 10. That could be done with 4 from Brooks and 11 from Jabari. If Brooks was getting 4 minutes less with Amen and Tari getting 30 mpg, people would complain about Jabari and Cam not getting minutes over Brooks. There is a decent sized faction that is completely against a meritocracy system when it involves anyone under the age of 24 not getting 30 mpg while a vet plays better and has minutes.
Amen and Tari clearly needs to play more. Jabari's case is difficult to assess. Brooks is a better defender. Jabari is a better rebounder, and is theoretically a better shooter but is disappointing so far. There is a middle ground between being completely against meritocracy and advocating a pure meritocracy. In the Rockets case, there is some valid argument about prioritizing development of the young players over winning. I think there should be a balance between the two goals.
Ime is already allocating more minutes to Amen and Tari and soon their minute allocation will both be greater than brooks. Amen is better at every aspect of basketball other than 3 pt shooting than Dillon. Strange hill to die on.
Jabari would be getting 20 mpg to develop if the team was adjusted to way I think it should with Amen and Tari getting 30 mpg. I'd consider this much closer to the middle ground than the gotta trade Brooks crowd when most teams don't have much salary wiggle room this season. Really, Cam is the only young one not getting much PT to develop under what I would like. I don't consider Brooks to be some high bar keeping Cam back or keeping Jabari from getting 30 mpg. There isn't a replacement for FVV right now. Brooks is really the only vet affecting the playing time of 5 young guys. Getting rid of him or drastically reducing his PT would not be the middle ground. I think Brooks, Amen, Tari, FVV, Green, and Sengun are on tiers above Sheppard, Cam, and JSJ. I think there just is a big, but not insurmountable gap between Cam and JSJ with Brooks. I'm not convinced Sengun or Green or Tari or Amen will not go absolutely nuts this year making this year a competitive year or that the Rockets don't make a trade for a star. I don't think giving this year a chance through the trade deadline is such a bad thing. I'm not sure Brooks will be able to hold every young guy off in a meritocracy the entire season. Frankly, I think Tari and Amen are both better than him now, but I worry Amen's lack of shooting would be easier to game plan if he was starting.
I’ve been a proponent of trading Brooks so that Tari and Amen can get the minutes. Amen needs to start so that he can guard the best perimeter player for the other team. He is great off the bench, but the more minutes he is guarding the best players on the other team, the better the Rockets will be. If Brooks is satisfied with a bench role of 20-25 mins and Ime can still manage to get both Tari and Amen 30+ mins then that would be ideal. I could care less whether Cam or Sheppard get more minutes. They will have to earn it and clearly they aren’t even close at this point. Dillon has been playing really good defense and rebounding better to start the year. I’m not convinced that is a sustainable situation for the entire year. We are not a good 3 pt shooting team whether Brooks is in the game or not. Our offense is performing well because of defense, transition, and offensive rebounding. Amen and Tari are the engine that fuels that train.
I was wondering how Ime could put up with Cam's shooting the ball every time he gets it. It turned out that he couldn't. I don't think Cam will get minutes until he shows in practice or limited minutes that he can change this. Otherwise he'll be a player you put it for 5 minutes and hope he makes his first few shots. In my ranking he is at the bottom of the core and I am not surprised that he lost his spot in the rotation.
Uh, Brooks was 'benched' in the 4th period last night because it was a blowout - he's 3rd on the team in minutes at 32 mpg - that's actually a career high. The only thing that limits his minutes is foul trouble, not Udoka - who would have him out there for 35-40 minutes if he could (see Dallas, SAS) It's pretty clear that he's the key to what the Rockets plan is on defense is Dillon Brooks Watch either of the last 2 games, who was the guy who gets KAT? Who gets Wemby? Jabari Smith? No it's Brooks. And yes, having an additional non-shooter on your team is giant issue in the halfcourt - you might not like Brooks 34% shooting from deep but it doesn't cripple your halfcourt offense via spacing the way a complete non-shooter like Amen does. Listen, I like Amen, hes a dynamic player in transition, but if he's stationed on the outside you're playing 4 on 5.
I don't think Brooks should be affecting Amen and Tari's minutes. Brooks is in there to guard the most skilled large guy so that the opposing team can't do the PnR and get Sengun on a PG or highly skilled SG/SF. If one wants Amen on the best perimeter player, Jabari would still be the best choice to replace. I would not be up in arms if Tari and Amen both started (the starting lineup has been good so I would only sub out one guy at a time, but I don't see Brooks as the weakest link among the starters). If it is just one starting, it should be over Jabari. If Tari and Amen are both getting 30 mpg+, why would want Brooks only getting 20-25? There's easily 90 minutes available for all three at starting SF, starting PF, backup SF, Backup PF, and backup SG while having enough to get Jabari 20mpg. Also, Jabari's been able to get 6-7 mpg at C this season so far. If Landale and Adams don't play better, Jabari is going to be taking even more C minutes. If Cam needs more mpg, it should come out of Jabari's minutes (or Jabari should take Adams/Landale minutes and then Cam takes a little of Jabari's).
