Dillon Brooks may be embracing the “villain” role, but the Memphis Grizzlies may not be willing to embrace him next season.
The forward and former Oregon Ducks’ star is struggling in the Grizzlies’ playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers. He has been embroiled in controversy, suspensions and fines and the Grizzlies may be ready to move on from him after the season, according to a report.
“They’ve tried to move on from Dillon Brooks already. I don’t know if Dillon Brooks is on this team after this series,” ESPN NBA insider Tim MacMahon said on the “Brian Windhorst and The Hoop Collective’ podcast. “We’ll see if the Grizzlies can come back and win it. I certainly don’t know if he’s on the team after free agency this summer.”
Brooks, who is the final year of a three-year, $35 million contract, is the Grizzlies’ defensive specialist. He wants to be guy who guards the opponents’ best perimeter player. More than a few people questioned Brooks after he said before the Lakers-Grizzlies playoff series began that he wanted to guard James.
Brooks couldn’t stop James on a critical one-on-one play in overtime of Game 4 Wednesday night. James drove to the left along the baseline, drew a foul on Brooks and made a contested layup to give the Lakers a 113-108 lead with 29.4 seconds remaining. The Lakers won the game 117-111 to take a 3-1 lead in the series and push the Grizzlies to the brink of elimination.
The poor defensive performance adds to what has been a difficult series for Brooks.
He was ejected from Game 3 after hitting the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James in the groin. The ejection came on the heels of Brooks calling the 38-year-old James “old” and he indicated he didn’t respect James during post-game comments following Game 2 of the first-round playoff series.
He hasn’t stopped James and he has struggled to make shots on offense during the series.
Brooks scored 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting in Game 4. Brooks is averaging 11.3 points per game and he has made just 33.3% (17-of-51) of his shots in the first four games. Brooks’ 2-point shooting is at 45.8% (11-of-24), his 3-point shooting has sunk to 22.2% (6-of-27) and his free throw shooting is at 71.4% in the playoffs.
The numbers represent a sharp drop compared to the regular season. Brooks averaged 14.3 points per game while making 39.6% of his shots overall. He made 45.1% of his 2-pointers, 32.6% of 3-pointers and 77.9% of his free throws.
The challenge of guarding the physical and athletic James could be wearing him down physically and mentally. In addition, the bad boy role and resulting attention could also be a factor in Brooks’ declining production in the playoffs.
“I’ve been dealing with this for two years now. It is what it is,” Brooks told reporters Sunday. “The fans can talk (stuff) whenever they want to. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to keep playing my game and get better and better each and every day as long as my career goes.”