This article was their idea. Perhaps the best idea I\u2019ve had during my time with The Dream Shake was to solicit the comments section for article ideas. I\u2019ll be using a few of your suggestions.<\/p>\n
Stros (can I call you Stros?) suggested a piece on how badly the Rockets might miss Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks. This is a modified version of that idea. Why? Because this Dream Shaker doesn\u2019t really miss Green:<\/p>\n
But he badly misses Brooks.<\/p>\n
Rockets (may have?) missed Brooks last year<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a bit difficult to make the statistical argument that the Rockets missed Brooks last year.<\/p>\n
In 2024-25, they had a 110.3 Defensive Rating, which was fifth in the NBA. Last season, they were 112.1, which was sixth.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not an entirely inconsequential differential, but it\u2019s not a gulf either. Besides, it\u2019s hard to make the causal link directly to Brooks. His absence was likely a variable (more on that later), but who can say for sure?<\/p>\n
Per CleaningTheGlass, each of the Rockets\u2019 top-5 lineups in 2024-25 featured Brooks. That could be something – except four of them featured Jalen Green as well (although, for what it\u2019s worth, the best one did not).<\/p>\n
Per databalllr, the Rockets were +4.2 when Brooks was on, and +7.6 when he was off. That\u2019s no help.<\/p>\n
Are we sure Brooks even made the Rockets better?<\/p>\n
Brooks\u2019 impact was intangible<\/p>\n
Brooks is your prototypical \u201cthe stats don\u2019t capture his impact\u201d guy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an issue when you\u2019re routinely tasked with guarding the other team\u2019s best player. The numbers will say you\u2019re not a good defender, because the league\u2019s best players can\u2019t be defended. If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drops 40 on Brooks, he would have dropped 48 on a lesser man on the same night, and nobody cares.<\/p>\n
Which may explain why Amen Thompson\u2019s Defensive Box Plus\/Minus (DBPM) dropped from 2.6 in 2024-25 to 1.0 last season. In Brooks\u2019 absence, he was responsible for guarding star players far more often:<\/p>\n
What, you thought Kevin Durant would do it?<\/p>\n
When Thompson is guarding the SGAs of the world, he\u2019s less available to play passing lanes and hunt weakside blocks. He\u2019s at his best when he can operate as a free safety. Hopefully, the addition of Marcus Smart will lessen some of his on-ball defensive burden in 2026-27.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just one way that Brooks was an adhesive for this team. After years of watching P.J. Tucker and Trevor Ariza camp out in the corner like they were waiting for Wrestlemania tickets, it was almost jarring to watch Brooks\u2019 forray into shot creation. Yet, that multiplicity of skills was part of his value. Brooks\u2019 ability to function as a \u201cbreak in case of emergency\u201d bucket getter had extra value when he was such a strong three-and-D wing otherwise.<\/p>\n
Finally, there\u2019s the \u201cje ne sais quoi\u201d. In 2024-25, Brooks, Ime Udoka, and Fred VanVleet were a three-headed monster. VanVleet actualized Udoka\u2019s vision of low-risk, low-reward offense that only works (?) if you defend harder and play meaner than everyone else. Brooks actualized the defending harder and playing meaner part.<\/p>\n
Again, there\u2019s hope that Smart can fill that void. It should be noted that Brooks has changed since leaving Houston. During his last season with the Rockets, he averaged 14.0 points per game while shooting 39.7% from three-point land. Last year with the Suns, he hit a career-high 20.2 points per game, but the shooting slipped to 34.4%. He just signed an extension with a $24.3 million Average Annual Value (AAV), which is probably too much money for Dillon Brooks.<\/p>\n
The Rockets miss the old Dillon Brooks, straight from the go Dillon Brooks, etc.<\/p>\n
Unless you think he\u2019s a viable 20-a-night guy. From this vantage point, that looks like something a team whose first-round picks it would be nice to own in 2027 and 2029. Perhaps Brooks is still helping the Rockets, along with Green.<\/p>\n
But as a 14-point scorer, three-and-D, occasional creator, spiritual leader? Brooks was worth his weight in gold:<\/p>\n
No matter what the numbers say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was their idea. Perhaps the best idea I\u2019ve had during my time with The Dream Shake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,79539,79540,99],"class_list":["post-805722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-player-analysis","tag-rockets-analysis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}