The Rockets have so much young talent. Is playing Brooks justified in keeping younger players on the bench?
At the time of Dillon Brooks’ signing of a four-year $86 million dollar contract, he might have been one of the leagues least liked players. Coming off a playoff series against the Lakers where his mouth and antics wrote checks another part of his anatomy couldn’t cash against LeBron, his shtick had run its course in Memphis and it was time for a change of scenery.
Any Rockets fan who claims they went into the offseason hoping the Rockets would sign Dillon Brooks to a multi-year deal with an average annual salary of $21.5 million is a liar. Don’t trust that person. I cannot think of anyone who saw it coming, but once it happened, I know many of us, after the initial shock, began justifying to ourselves why it could work and why overpaying for Brooks was okay. After all, up to that point, the Rockets were in desperate need of toughness, veteran leadership, and experience.
He brought just that in his first season with the Rockets, but now in his second season, how important is his role? Does he do anything markedly better than his most obvious replacement in the starting lineup, Tari Eason? Let’s examine the two a little closer and you decide for yourself, Is Dillon Brooks expendable?
Offense
This season Dillon Brooks has an offensive rating of 119.0 through nine games. His career offensive rating is 103.0, but he did finish last season with a career high ORTG of 109.0 in 72 games played. He has scored just shy of 12 points-per-game this season on 39.8 percent shooting from the field, including 37.8 percent from the three-point line. Assuming he can keep this up, he would be on pace to eclipse his previous career high in offensive rating and his career high three-point percentage.
However, given his torrid start from distance last season, only to see it frequently fall off a cliff, it would be a big assumption to make that he will continue at this pace. As a Rocket, Dillon has improved his overall offensive numbers, but we are likely seeing his peak in that regard. Long story short, he’s been okay through nine games.
Tari Eason has a career offensive rating of 111.6 and through the first nine games of the season, his ORTG is 128.4, shooting 54 percent from the field, 40 percent from three, with a TS% 61.9, and oh, by the way, he grabs two offensive rebounds a game in 21.7 minutes per contest. Tari Eason has been a key cog in a bench unit that has been really impressive, at times outplaying the starters. If he were to be placed in the starting lineup, undoubtedly the bench unit would take a hit offensively.
With Brooks being on the court with Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green, Fred Vanvleet and Jabari Smith most of the time, his offense is not what makes him valuable. You could argue if the others are scoring, then his offensive production is good enough as is. That would be a fair argument, but is he head and shoulders above Tari Eason on the defensive side of the ball?
Defense
As far as defensive rating goes, we are going to have to preface the discussion with the admission that Dillon Brooks consistently guards the opposition’s best offensive player every night, no matter what the position in the floor. With that in mind, we will compare Dillon’s defensive rating last season and this season to the league average in 2023-2024. The league average DRTG for a small-forward last season was 115.8, and Dillon Brooks posted a rating of 116.3, once again in 72 games played. In comparison Alperen Sengun had a DRTG of 111.0 in 63 games, slightly better than Giannis Antetokounmpo. There were 13 non-center NBA players in the top 25 of defensive rating last season, with Luka Doncic at number 25 with a DRTG of 112.6. I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that Brooks’ career defensive rating is 113. This season through 9 games it is at 115.
Tari Eason has played 113 game in his young career, an in those games he boasts a defensive rating of 112.7, and through nine games this season his DRTG is 103.6. Now, Tari may not be consistently guarding the other team’s best player, but he is consistently guarding the best player on the floor at the time he’s playing, which at times will be and has been the other team’s best player. Forget the numbers and just trust your eyes when Tari is on the court. He is a tenacious defender of the basketball.
So the question falls back to, is Dillon Brooks significantly better than Tari Eason defensively? Considering all we have just gone over, it appears to me that at minimum it’s a wash and looking at the raw numbers, Tari Eason is better!
Conclusion
Dillon Brooks and Tari Eason play vital roles on the Houston Rockets, there is no doubt there. However, the question was, “Is Dillon Brooks expendable?” The numbers and the eye test tell us that Eason is a better offensive player, and at least as good of a defender as Dillon Brooks. Another thing in Eason’s favor is that while his defense comes with attitude and passion, it doesn’t come with gimmicky antics (aside from the horrendous “Warriors! Come out to play!” moment) and it doesn’t come with silly flagrant fouls and ejections.
While the presence of Dillon Brooks allows the Rockets to tout a tough and relentless bench unit with the likes of Eason, Thompson, and Adams, there is nothing Dillon Brooks does for this team that can’t be replaced. So what prevents the Rockets from moving on from him and building further on the development of players like Amen Thompson, and Cam Whitmore? Well, for starters, the aforementioned $86 million dollar price tag that he carries probably makes it pretty difficult. Factor in also that Tari Eason has not averaged more than 22 minutes per game in his career, and it may start to become clearer for Rockets fans why Dillon Brooks should be expected to maintain his role on this team for the foreseeable future.
Is there another player on this roster then, that Rockets fans perhaps want to see less of in return for more Tari Eason, more Amen Thompson, and even more Cam Whitmore, who was just sent to the Rio Grande Valley to get playing time with the Rockets G-League affiliate, the Vipers? In my next piece I’d like to explore just that topic. I’ll give you a hint… His name rhymes with Jabari Smith Jr.
(To learn more about how defensive rating is calculated visit https://www.hoopsaddict.com/defensive-rating-calculation/)