Brooks is shooting .388 from 3 on 6 3pa a game. He is a part of virtually every one of our most impactful lineups. He also just turned 29, and I expect he will age well. His contract has turned into quite the bargain.
I really like Dillon. I think he's a cool guy and it's clear that he's a positive voice in the locker room. I really DISLIKE his black hole tendencies, him almost never passing on a fast break, and him going into "I'm getting this shot attempt no matter what" mode. When him and Tari are on the court together, the physicality is a joy to watch but the lack of passing drives me insane.
Dillon is a really good role player and very much worth his contract. I was one of the few on this board, that wasn't upset with the contract to begin with. His defense has regressed lately and it faded last year as well. Probably the same factor that has caused all our players to falter, fatigue. I hope we keep him to bring off the bench the rest of this year and next. He, FVV, Tari, and other vet adds will form a pretty terrific bench next year. FVV was a big time contributor as a backup PG on a championship team. Hope we can sign him for 3/75 in the off-season, unless we exercise his option and use him in a trade.
Let's not get carried away. I'm still president of the Bench Brooks club. Our net rating is WAY better with him off the floor (+6.4). Our defensive rating is barely worse with him on the floor (-1.5). Our offensive rating is DRAMATICALLY better when he's off the floor (-7.9) and shooting is the main reason people want to keep him in the lineup.
His impact metrics and on/off stuff will always be bad because he’s either very solid or absolutely horrid at most things. On ball defense is fantastic, spot up shooting is very solid (this season). Rebounding he’s maybe the worst i’ve ever seen for his size, a total zero as a passer/creator/ball hander. If you look at stuff like bpm or vorp, he has never posted a positive number in any season in either stat, which is insane for someone who isn’t garbage.
He's actually an elite shooter now though, I think almost 40% on roughly 5 catch and shoot attempts? Have to give him that. Seems to have improved in transition too btw. I'd never define someone by these numbers alone. Even if this numbers were better, it's just clear he's not better than Amen and we need a real PF to maintain our rebounding and defensive dominance.
Whenever we do bench Brooks we will be a much better team... and that's because it will mean one of our young guys (Tari/Jabari/Cam) will have taken a big step up.
He’s not an elite shooter. This ONE season he has been very good at spot up 3s, to be an elite shooter you need way more diversity. Shooting on the move, stuff like that. I don’t think teams are scared of him shooting though, he’s constantly left open so he doesn’t give you the spacing benefit that his spot up % would indicate. He’s been better than i expected though, i can’t deny that but my expectations were oh so so low.
Curious where you're getting your numbers. Basketball Reference has the offense being -1 with Brooks, and defense being -0.1 with him. For a total net rating of of -1.2. I know ratings can differ from site to site, but there's no way they're off by this much especially with offense and defense going opposite directions. https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2025/on-off/
Not sure if you are using a smaller subset of games or a different site., but using NBA.com stats for this season Net Rating is 1.5 better with him off the court. Defensive Ratimg is 2.1 better with him off the court. Offensive Rating is 0.6 worse with him off the court. I think it is pretty clear that the looking at Net Rating and Defensive Rating on court and off court numbers suggest that the Rockets play slightly better when Brooks is off the court. This makes sense in that the Rockets play better with VanVleet, Sengun, Amen, and Eason (when healthy), and Brooks's number likely take a hit when he's not on the floor with 2 of them. Brooks is a role player. For the most part, the Rockets do good with him on the court when good players are on the court with him. When less than good players are on the court, the Rockets do worse with Brooks on the court. If not liking using this approach based on different combinations on the court for Rockets, and other team, EPM does a good job of handling that. Brooks O -0.2 D 1.0 Total EPM 0.7 Even with Brooks's defense not being as good as earlier in the season, I'd say the numbers show he's likely not the driver behind bad defense, and he's more a supporting player on offense than actually good. Now if we did your approach to evaluate Jalen Green....
I don't think anybody would argue that Brooks is better than Amen (other than shooting). Most people would agree that Amen should stay as a starter. The debate is between Brooks and Smith. I prefer Smith over Brooks. While they bring different strengths and weaknesses on offense and defense, Jabari's rebounding and shot blocking is the tiebreaker between them for me.
While I think Ime will decide between Brooks and Smith, I don't think the debate should be limited to those 2. I think Ime will pick Brooks out of those 2. I'd pick Brooks between those two, but I don't think it is a big deal either way. They will both play a lot and whoever plays better with FVV, Green, Amen, and Sengun should start if those 4 have to start. I have no problem with letting the players decide. My fear is that I think the FVV, Green, Brooks, JSJ, Sengun lineup (once FVV is back) will continue to perform better in the short term than either the FVV, Green, Amen, JSJ, Sengun lineup or the FVV, Green, Brooks, Amen, Sengun lineup. I don't want poor fit to be used to show Amen shouldn't be playing. I think there is ample data suggesting FVV is needed as a starter. I think there is ample data suggesting Sengun is needed as a starter. How would you evaluate whether the FVV, Green, Brooks, JSJ, Sengun lineup or the FVV, Green, JSJ, Amen, Sengun lineup is better? What would you suggest if the FVV, Green, Brooks, JSJ, Sengun lineup comes up better by however you measure lineups? If playing JSJ over Brooks fixes things, I will be fine with that lineup. Edit: While still a small sample, I think the data has been bad enough defensively to show that the FVV, Green, Amen, Brooks, Sengun lineup is not better overall than the FVV, Green, Brooks, JSJ, Sengun. I don't think Amen is the problem. I think it is a fit issue. I'm just not as eager as most to throw the blame instantly to Brooks when it appears to be a defensive issue to me.
Oh I used statmuse unfortunately. https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/houston-rockets-net-rating-with-and-without-brooks-this-season
You'd be surprised at the number of non-Amen believers. Have a scan of my thread months ago asking if Amen will ever come off the bench again in his career. Plenty of people in there believing we'd be more successful with Brooks/Jabari. Yeah the way I say it is he's not the most switchable player and he can't guard a PG better than Fred, a wing better than Amen or a PF better than Jabari. Truly bad luck on his part that it panned out this way but he is redundant on this team because Amen is both a better defender and a better overall player. What makes it worse is Tari is an amazing defender we have off the bench too. No one ever imagined Brooks' problem would be he's the 3rd best wing defender on his team one day, but we got lucky. Further we need rebounds and love to run and that's not his game at all. Bari is worse in transition but at least he might get you the rebound that leads to the transition. Brooks' game is slow halfcourt catch and shoot when he's open. That's really it. Have a look at his career playoff stats they are uniquely atrocious. He's 38.7% from the field after 22 playoff games. It's on a downward linear trend too, each playoffs he got worse and took less shots until he shot 31% in the last series. If people are thinking we need his attitude and experience for the playoffs, they are in for a rude awakening.
