With NBA preseason basketball underway, it seems like Dillon Brooks is already in midseason form, just wearing a Houston Rockets uniform this time around.
On Tuesday night in the Rockets' preseason contest against the Indiana Pacers while going over a screen set up by Daniel Theis, Brooks hit the big man in no man's land below the belt.
The former Memphis Grizzlies pest was then ejected from the game.
To be fair, Brooks was most likely not gonna play a lot in this game and was most likely gonna ride the bench in the second half of this game. His roster spot is already firmly secured. Additionally, if this act was committed by any other player, it would have not generated as much of a social reaction as it has with Brooks.
Past precedent has a way of doing that.
Dillon Brooks wasted no time showing off his antics with Rockets
Obviously, it's difficult to tell if Brooks will chuck up shots and be detrimental to the team as he was toward the end of his time with Memphis with Houston. Regardless, the Rockets have put a lot of money into the veteran. The team gave him an $86 million contract over four years with the expectation that he be a key role player for their up-and-coming team.
The contract at the time was a bad idea and will be laughed at by the rest of the NBA if things go down similarly to the way they went in Memphis. To be quite honest, Houston enabled his erratic behavior by handing him that big of a deal in free agency.
Yes, the team will value his defense but the downside of Brooks' game, like chucking up ill-advised 3-point shots and stirring the pot, are essentially allowed when a player is given $20 million-plus per season over four years.
For the sake of Rockets fans everywhere, let's hope that doesn't turn out to be true. Based on this moment in the preseason, though, it feels like it's already trending in the wrong direction.
