Rockets deal for Dillon Brooks (4 yrs/$86 million + incentives)

With their free time they can make a movie together. "Get Hard 3" or "4" or "10" or whatever sequel we've reached by then.

DILLON BROOKS
MATT MALONEY
in
GET HARD 2043: Only if you Got Viagra​

 

Yeah, I still haven't come around on the player or especially the contract. But knowing that Udoka wanted him, I'll give him a chance and try to stay open-minded. Maybe Brooks will surprise me.

 

Guess who BR thinks is our weakest link!

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10083702-the-weakest-link-in-every-nba-teams-starting-lineup

 

Oh no, not Bleacher Report in an article written by a lawyer!

 

Since I'm obviously not a Memphis fan again I decided to look back on his history to see all the crap he's done that's made him so hated and found this article.

https://www.si.com/nba/2023/05/02/dillon-brooks-controversy-timeline-memphis-grizzlies-wont-re-sign

To me most of this just fits into normal a-hole on the court behavior (Pat Bev type). So again it feels like what's driving fan outrage is that he tried to talk crap to LeBron and failed to back it up. And I can't find really major news of him being in incidents before this past year. Furthermore, both the Lakers and the Bucks wanted him this offseason. So clearly contenders view him as a plus rotation player.

The only true issue with Brooks is his shot selection. However, that's not something I can speculate, because I presume the Rockets like every other team knows this issue and surely during contract negotiations talked about it, and Ime Udoka is supposed to be this no-nonsense guy who could reign him in. So really if Udoka is as good as people think he is, then this isn't an issue. Otherwise, well, we are screwed if Udoka can't do the one thing everyone believe's amazing at as a coach.

 

We still have no intel on how much those teams were willing to pay him and how they wanted to use him. Just because a team is "interested" in him does not necessarily mean that they are willing to jump into a bidding battle.

 

At the very minimum he was offered the MLE which is $13m/year to play in winning situations, apparently $7m/year is how much we have to overpay the market to lure him to the worst team in the NBA. Is that really that big of a deal? Considering the increasing cap, and that the market may actually be underrating his value due to what happened with Lebron. Even if it’s $7m dead money, we already basically have that in Tate on the roster and no one seems to care much.

 

Yeah, him putting his teammates in bad situations where they have to deal with the fallout from his bad actions. That's what I was talking about. As I said already, locker room issue was the wrong phrase - my bad. I have no issue with trash talking. But trash talking in very public ways, failing to live up to it, and then avoiding any accountability at all... that's not exactly the kind of culture we want here, is it?

In any case, that was just one of several things I mentioned. If you want to dismiss it as irrelevant, ok, we can agree to disagree, but my larger point still remains. My post was about saying Brooks is not comparable to Dort. That's the meat of the argument. I wasn't doing "fan outrage" over anything - I was just pointing out the differences between Brooks and Dort. One of them being that they have a different temperament, and that Brooks' temperament has been something his teammates have had to work around.

And btw, Lakers and Bucks wanted Brooks at MLE money. I think almost anyone would gladly take him at that figure.

I agree that the larger issue is Brooks' apparent insistence on being a featured part of the offense. Hopefully Ime can deal with that, but I won't be surprised if Brooks still wants to get his shots and takes away opportunities from our younger guys.

 

Honestly I'm just trying to make sense of what makes his actions so problematic that it gets devalued in people's eyes. Yeah, he and Dort has different temperaments, but usually temperament doesn't really make someone cost less in FA. For example, Memphis replaced him with Marcus Smart, another guy who basically does the same crap and gets the same fan reactions. Smart is a better player for sure, but that's why Memphis paid 2 1sts for him. It does seem like we do disagree on whether being an fiery/impulsive guy (the good and bad that comes with being one) is a negative or not. Which I think is fine. I'm just glad I did do the research on this so I'm actually feeling better about this signing than I did before.

And regarding salary, both the Bucks and the Lakers are trying to win. It doesn't even matter that they wanted to pay him less in this case, since Brooks being a malcontent on those teams are actually more damaging since they have championship hopes. The worst he can be on the Rockets is being wasted money, not wasted year in the prime of a superstar in Giannis/LeBron. That's more my point than anything else.

 

It's not just the amount but more importantly the length. It's the timeline that may affect the future. Not to mention all the roster maneuvering giving up assets to get rid of salaries in order to make the deal work. That's a costly acquisition for a guy who we don't want to have a big role on offense and might become a headcase if he doesn't want to listen to the coach.

 

To much shenanigans to just target below mediocrity to mediocrity.

 

Was this article legally baked!?!

 

If it were a three year deal at this price I would be a lot less frustrated. Just a long time to be stuck with him if things don't work out. However, if the cap does increase by a large amount, maybe it won't be as big of a deal as it currently seems. Trying to imagine a world where the salary cap is $200M...

 

Larry Bird thinks those shorts are too short.

 

Love to see our franchise player going to work @Salvy

 

You guys are really ignorant when it comes to the financial impact of this signing. Nothing they have done decreases their flexibility to go after a max FA whenever they want to. Brooks contract is in know way crippling and maybe an attractive contract two years from now. FVV is gone (if you want) next year. It’s laughable to think his defensive chops alone won’t make this team better.

 

Dillon is him. An MVP pro am champion. T-shirts coming soon @Salvy

 

Thanks for sharing , Brooks is easily a top 10 Rocket for me.. He is a Shane Battier but with star potential!!