Tuesday NBA Open Thread

For tonight’s open thread, I’m going to focus on players like Dillon Brooks. A lot of people hate Dillon Brooks. That’s because he is a mean dude on the court. We mostly watch the NBA these days to see the amazing offensive firepower. The shooting is off the charts these days. What Steph Curry and Damian Lillard did to the game upped the entertainment value by a lot.

But….Curry and Lillard can’t play defense at all. Neither can Brooks’ teammate Ja Morant. Everyone who tunes into a Griz game is doing so to watch Morant’s ridiculous moves, including me. He’s amazing. But offense is only one part of the game if you really want to win.

My Blazers have been so frustrating the last few years, but not this year. When they were running out Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Norman Powell last year, I mean you were going to see some points but more of them were going to be given up every single time. Then Dame got hurt and they blew up this ridiculousness. But this was a team that simply did not value defense and thus could not win.

Yes, Curry is the most important player in the Warriors dynasty. But they could win four titles because both Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were next level defenders. That’s what a Dillon Brooks, a Gary Payton II, bring to the table. That’s why getting Payton was a top priority for Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, who wants guys who play hard of defense.

Now, Brooks is a difficult character. He really does get in your face. Damian Lillard despises him, for instance. But by god if he doesn’t carry those Grizzlies on his back with his uncompromising competitiveness and fearlessness. He can score, but doesn’t really need to. He doesn’t get a ton of boards or assists. What he does is lock down the best scorer on the other team and harass the shit out of them. The other day, he did this to his old mentor Mike Conley when the Griz played the Jazz. He got in Conley’s face too. But they both laughed it off after the game–it was Conley who helped encourage this in him when he was a second round pick out of Oregon and no one knew if his game could really play in the NBA. And unlike Draymond, there’s no evidence I know of that Brooks can’t keep this under control with his teammates in practice.

Even though Brooks is on the Grizzlies, I still follow him closely because he was a great Duck that led that team to the Final 4, even after Chris Boucher got hurt. But it’s this attitude why I am so happy with this Blazers team. People like Jerami Grant bring a fierceness to a team that CJ McCollum simply does not. Losing does not really bother McCollum much. He just blows it off and moves on. There’s a place for that. It’s a long season. But you have to have fierceness to win.

So this open thread is to the ferocity of the defensive asshole player who allow their more offensive minded teammates to score and pull their teams over the top. Grizzlies-Pelicans is on TNT tonight too.