Dillon Brooks
Houston Rockets

Player Facts

Height: 6'6"
Weight: 225lbs.

Wingspan: 6'6"

Date of Birth: Jan. 22, 1996
College Experience: Oregon (3 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 1

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 8
Physical Strength: 8
Positional Size: 8
Positional Wingspan: 6
Paint Scoring: 5
Midrange Scoring: 6
Three-Point Scoring: 7
Dribbling: 7
Passing: 4
Perimeter Defense: 8
Interior Defense: 6
Rebounding: 6

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Thriving in a Simple Role

> Rugged Takes

> Some Passing + Midranging

> Feisty Defense

> Snaring Loose Balls

> Turnover-Forcing

> Barely Positive AST/TO

> Bad Shooting Percentages

> Frequent Fouling

> Sticking On Screens

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of NF & Z.Highlights (YouTube),

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

At 6-foot-6 Dillon Brooks has superb size and toughness at the two/three position. The rugged swingman plays with all-out effort, something that is mostly to the team's benefit. He can also knock down perimeter shots and spend time defending a handful of positions at a high level.

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Thriving in a Simple Role

When Dillon gets the chance to play a simpler role on offense, he can be a really strong role player. He nails his catch-and-shoot jimmies at a respectable clip and can violently attack closeouts well enough. Next to Fred VanVleet, Alperen Sengun, and Jalen Green, one of his main duties is to can the open jumpers they create.

His catch-and-shoot marks from downtown align with those of an archetypical 3-and-D player. Dillon nailed 39% of his spot-up threes over his first three NBA seasons combined. 2022-2023 in particular had him with more spot-up points than players like Klay Thompson, Tyler Herro, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Rugged Takes

Coming off dribble-handoffs from his bigs is another component of Brooks' game. He can pull from behind the arc but also likes to put his head down and slash hard down the lane.

He invites contact around the rim more than almost any other perimeter player. Being a well-built 225 lbs. allows him to throw his weight around en route to the cup. Dillon averaged 6.3 drives per contest in 2022-2023.

Some Passing + Midranging

Brooks can make some nice live dribble passes as he goes downhill. If the entire play is happening right in front of him, he can make quality reads.

The midrange is an area Brooks will use more than several modern-day perimeter players. He has such good size and an elevated release point that the defender's contesting hands don't bother him all that much. While not the model of efficiency, Dillon has this dribble-in jumper in his bag.

Feisty Defense

Dillon's defense can be difficult to evaluate. He's big and strong on the wing and uses that frame to stifle opposing slashers. However, he does make some questionable plays/decisions on the defensive end.

The former Duck plays with an edge on both ends. Defensively, he has a hunger that leads to multiple winning plays on a nightly basis. When Dillon is locked in and somewhat calculated with his defense, he can be quite impactful on the wing.

He was in the 77th percnetile in terms of isolation defense in 2022-2023. The hard-playing Brooks checked mostly guards that year while also logging substantial minutes on forwards. Forward-wise, he held those backcourt players to under 42% from the field.

Snaring Loose Balls

That scrappiness also shows up in the form of scooping up 50/50 balls. Brooks doesn't think twice about hitting the deck/sacrificing his body for the sake of securing the possession for his squad. This admirable attribute is perenially backed up by the tracking data.

Turnover-Forcing

He continues to turn defense-to-offense for his squad by straight-up stealing the basketball as well. Brooks can play passing lanes intuitively and also clean strip people with his hand/arm strength.

He really gets into people's jerseys and can make the catch alone a difficult proposition. These ball denials/early pick-ups also help pad his defensive stat totals. 152 deflections were recorded across his 2022-2023 year.

The turnover-forcing of Brooks leads to easy scores for both himself and his running mates. He chugs down the lane for two's but can also flare out to three-point land. At 204 transition points during that final Grizzlies season, Dillon chipped in nicely here on volume.

Finally, his interior defense is a value-add for his position. He rotates well and uses his size to be a deterrent in the painted area. Brooks typically gives you about half a block per-36 minutes, a fine figure at guard.

WEAKNESSES

Barely Positive AST/TO

Dillon is one of the weaker passers at his position. Simple reads can work for him but he's not a high-load pick-and-roll guy by any means. Moreover, he can laser in his focus on his getting own shot and neglecting some open teammates from time to time.

He tends to post just barely positive assist-to-turnover marks. Considering his assist output is nothing special, greater efficiency here would be welcomed. Brooks tends to generate just a handful of points for others per game.

Bad Shooting Percentages

His shot selection can be pretty brutal, and in turn quite damaging for the team. His two-point percentages reside in the mid-40's despite being a supersized shooting guard. The issue here is his lack of vigilance and his tendency to chuck up some well-contested shots.

Something that really drags down the overall shooting numbers is Dillon's paint clips. The Canadian struggles at the rim relative to his size. Perhaps his short wingspan of 6'6" is somewhat to blame. He also has quite poor touch on floaters – virtually always sub-40% from 3-10 foot range.

His actual restricted area finishing is troubling for his size. The sturdy 6'6" Brooks should be finishing through contact and over top people with greater efficiency. An ugly 57.9% at-the-rim mark in 2022-2023 was bested by many shorter guards.

The haphazard shooting can continue beyond the arc. While a strong spot-up guy, he's not a good enough shooter to be taking that one-dribble pull-up as often as he does.

Frequent Fouling

Just like how he can be pressing with his offense, a comparable over-eagerness exists within his defense. The Oregon product fouls like crazy on the perimeter, biting on far too many pump fakes. He wrongfully plays with his hands-first rather than his feet oftentimes.

He will take on the other team's better wing guy but will probably end up handing up multiple trips to the line. Additionally, he can commit some simply foolish fouls that don't do much in the way of stopping someone.

Dillon Brooks paced the entire NBA with 278 fouls in 2019-2020 then led the NBA again the following year. He and James Harden were the only non-big men to grace that former top ten. His steady 3.5-5 hacks per-36 minutes each year illustrate a lack of concerted growth effort.

Sticking On Screens

Brooks does not always take the best route around screens, both on and off-ball. Failure to navigate ball screens well manifests in some easy lanes/pull-ups for opposing ball-handlers.

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

A 19-year-old Dillon suited up for Team Canada in the 2015 Pan Am Games, situated not far from his hometown of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada