Morning Recap: Ranking Every Brooks That Could Have Been Involved in Friday’s Trade

December 15, 2018

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Late Friday night, Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that a three-team trade was going down between the Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies, and Phoenix Suns. The deal would be constructed as below:

Wizards acquire Trevor Ariza via Suns

Grizzlies acquire Kelly Oubre Jr via Wizards

Suns acquire Austin Rivers via Wizards and someone named Brooks via Grizzlies

And it’s that last tidbit of information that caused a plethora of confusion. Apparently, the Grizzlies were planning on sending MarShon Brooks to the Suns while Phoenix believed they were getting Dillon Brooks. The confusion of names was enough to make the entire trade fall apart, sending NBA Twitter into a flurry. And on top of all this, Scott Brooks is the current coach of the Wizards. Was he also involved in the trade? Probably not. However, regardless of which Brooks was supposed to be in the trade, I’ve decided to rank them from worst to best:

3. Scott Brooks: Scott Brooks isn’t a terrible coach but he has also repeatedly shown an inability to take control of his team’s locker room both in Washington and Oklahoma City. But it’s also somewhat unfair to put all of the blame on him for that when considering the egos he has been given. Regardless, it’s the job of the coach to manage egos and Brooks has done a poor job of it. As for his career as a player, Brooks had a solid 12-year career for numerous teams. He also won a championship with the Houston Rockets in 1994. However, Brooks never averaged over eight points per game in just one of his 12 seasons and finished his career averaging just under five points per game. Ultimately, he is an average (at best) coach and despite his ability to carve out a solid NBA career, he finishes last on my list of Brooks that could have been involved in Friday’s trade.

2. Dillon Brooks: A second-round pick out of Oregon, Dillon Brooks has already proven to be a solid role player for Memphis over the past two seasons. And I know Memphis was tanking last year, but Brooks still averaged 11 points per game on 44% from the field and 35% from behind the arc. Those are great numbers for a second-round pick who was probably not expecting to see many minutes in the first place. However, playing 12 fewer minutes this season, Brooks has seen a drop off in his numbers and is now averaging just 6.8 points per game on 40% shooting and 36% from three. Regardless, Brooks is a young talent with a great upside and would have been very valuable for the Suns. The ceiling would likely be a sixth man of the year candidate. But that’s not as valuable as who sits in the #1 spot.

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1. MarShon Brooks: I know what you’re thinking? “Isn’t he the reason the entire trade fell apart?” Yes. But what you may not know is that MarShon Brooks is coming off one of the most efficient seasons the NBA has ever seen. Last year, Brooks averaged 20.1 points per game on 50% shooting from the field, 59% from three, and 87% from the free throw line. Not only did Brooks almost complete the immaculate 50-50-90 season, but he almost completed a 50-60-90 season. If any other player even came close to 50-60-90 season, he would be immediately crowned MVP. Yet, MarShon Brooks wasn’t even in the talks for any All-NBA teams. The only small asterisk is that this run was throughout a seven-game stretch. Regardless, I find it proposterous that MarShon wasn’t even in the running for any All-NBA teams. If I’m an NBA GM, there are zero players I wouldn’t offer for MarShon. Frankly, the Suns just fleeced themselves out of a generational talent just because they didn’t do their research.