Dillon Brooks doesn’t seem to be reacting well towards having his minutes and opportunities reduced this year. He was a surprise for the Grizzlies last year, and ended up playing a ton as they entered ultra-tank mode. He was one of their best players, somehow, during the final stretch of unwatchable basketball Memphis was plopping onto the court.
Now the Grizzlies are good (???) again, which means less need for Brooks. He’s responded by trying to do too much, playing recklessly, which just makes the situation worse. He needs to chill, recompose himself, maybe lose a little weight (looking chubby in that thumbnail I just noticed), and find his groove from last year. Of course, that groove may only exist if he gets to be one of the main options on offense.
This is his first good scoring game of the season, and the Grizzlies lost anyway. More evidence for his mediocre-ness? Perhaps. I didn’t realize it, but last year his PER was only 9.8 (and even lower this year). I know PER isn’t a great stat, but it does illustrate that his scoring-only-ness makes it so that if he’s not scoring, he’s not really doing anything.
Man, before I wrote all those paragraphs I had a really positive impression of Brooks. What just happened?