Remembering Why Rockets Fans Loved Dillon Brooks

The Rockets added Brooks in the 2023 offseason alongside point guard Fred VanVleet and coach Ime Udoka. The trio quickly implemented a full cultural overhaul for the previously tanking franchise. The Rockets had just gotten three top-four draft picks in a row. Technically, they added a fourth in the next draft as well, but Reed Sheppard was selected third with a pick from the Brooklyn Nets. The Rockets’ own 2024 pick was only twelfth (and went to the Oklahoma City Thunder to draft Nikola Topic).

The Rockets went 41-41 in that first year with Brooks, VanVleet, and Udoka. It was an improvement of 19 wins, the team having gone 22-60 in 2022-23. In the team’s second year with Brooks, they went 52-30. They didn’t just make the playoffs, but were the second seed in the Western Conference. Brooks started every game with Houston. His unwavering effort was showcased by his immunity to the frequent performance-related benchings handed out by Udoka to teammates.

The Rockets wound up losing a slug-fest seven-game first-round series to the Golden State Warriors. The offense wasn’t always pretty, but the team showed heart and incorrigible defensive tenacity. They were widely heralded as a team on the rise.

Brooks Key To Historic Brokering

Then, last off-season, the Rockets elected to rise with Brooks no longer on board. Brooks was included in the Rockets’ package to acquire Kevin Durant. The defensive tone-setter was sent to the Phoenix Suns along with teammate Jalen Green as part of a historic seven-team deal.

With Phoenix, Brooks is averaging a career-high 20.9 points per game. That goes along with 3.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.0 steals. He’s shooting 44.0% from the field, 34.3% from three, and a career high 85.6% from the free-throw line. He’s played in 50 of the Suns’ 61 games and helped them to their current 36-27 record, good for seventh in the West. The team has gone 3-3 since Brooks broke his hand and has been out of the lineup.

Even with Durant, the Rockets certainly miss Brooks’ shot-making from the perimeter. He averaged 38.0% on 5.7 three-pointers per game in his two seasons in Houston. Most of all, though, the Rockets miss his competitive spirit. Brooks is the classic “love them on your team, hate them on the opponents’” type of competitor. On top of that, he fit perfectly with Udoka’s “plug them in to do a little bit of everything” basketball ideal.

Of course, the man he was traded for is the greatest “plug them in to do a little bit of everything” player the NBA has ever seen. Durant is averaging 26.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game. As usual, his efficiency is remarkable, shooting 50.9% from the field, 40.2% from three, and 88.9% from the free-throw line.

Should The Rockets Have Made The Trade?

Clearly, there can be no question that even age-37 Durant is a better basketball player. Of course, Durant’s role as a primary ball handler and creator is more akin to Green’s than Brooks. In theory, Brooks’ departure also made more room in the rotation for the high-impact Tari Eason. With all the Rockets’ various injuries, including frequent ones to Eason himself, that hasn’t really panned out. But the upgrade from Green to Durant is still theoretically worth the downgrade of Brooks to the likes of Josh Okogie.

Yet Houston’s current win rate is ever-so-slightly lower than what they finished with last season (63.4% in 2024-25, 62.9% in 2025-26). Houston fans may miss him, but Houston’s lack of apparent improvement can be attributed more to losing VanVleet via injury than to losing Brooks via trade. The idea among some fans that the Rockets should have pushed to include Jabari Smith Jr. instead of Brooks is also flawed. Smith is having a quietly productive season for the Rockets, whilst being key to their jumbo ball identity. In any case, his contract wouldn’t have matched.

The Nuance of Rockets Fans’ Love For Dillon Brooks

Still, there is something to be said for just how well Brooks suited Udoka’s “style” of coaching. Udoka undoubtedly loves KD, but in theory, the 37-year-old is supposed to be used sparingly during the regular season, not that Durant’s 36.7 minutes per game really reflect that. More importantly, despite his immensely competitive nature, Durant doesn’t project Udoka’s culture on the court the way Brooks did. That’s a killer for a coach who relies on culture so much more than Xs-and-Os. Ultimately, it’s the expectations that will spell the end of Udoka’s tenure in Houston, rather than any one personnel change. That won’t stop Udoka and many fans from indulging in plenty of “what ifs”.

Finally, there’s the fan perspective. There is something fundamentally off-putting about rooting for a team where the clear best player is a mercenary everyone expects to be gone in a couple of years. Leaps from young prospects like Sengun, Sheppard, and Amen Thompson have not yet materialised. To some extent, their development is even held back a little by Udoka’s reliance on Durant iso-ball. Durant understandably interprets this apathy as underappreciation, and his departure becomes all the more likely. With the team’s title window seemingly shuttered by injuries, it’s a confusing time to be a Rockets fan. Things were simpler back when they were chillin’ with Dillon the villain instead.