Suns' Dillon Brooks is Back Like He Never Left

Brooks, who has fully embraced the "Villain" mantra he carries in Phoenix, said his goal for the new year was cutting down on the techs.

"My villain goal would probably be not to get 17 technical fouls in a season. We'll see if I can save them for the end," he said.

"At least half of them are earned. Some of them are by the same refs, and some of them I don't need to get. Costs my team some wins. So, you know, it's the energy that we live by, so some of them are called for to get your point across."

To Brooks' credit, he wasn't the one who put his hand on Collins' neck – it was the other way around.

And for what it's worth, it's only preseason.

Suns coach Jordan Ott didn't touch on it during his post-game press conference but did highlight Brooks as part of a reason why Phoenix had a 19-point lead in the first half before resting their starters and eventually losing to Detroit.

"Two things can be true. The first half, that's the defensive intensity we want to bring every night. I thought Dillon (Brooks) was fantastic on the ball. Jalen (Green) was great defensively. Just our overall intent was at a high level in the first half and in the 2nd half, that can also be true. Their defensive intensity, how they played very similar to how we want to play," Ott said (h/t Duane Rankin, The Arizona Republic).

Brooks poured in 11 points and two rebounds in 16 minutes of play.

The Suns are back in action on Wednesday against the Chicago Bulls.