Dillon Brooks Wants The Last Word

Against all odds, something special is happening in Phoenix. The Suns began the season without a first-round draft pick, and with a roster stocked almost entirely with variously limited shooting guards, assorted castoffs, and for some reason the Charlotte Hornets' entire post-pandemic center rotation. These guys, most pundits would have said before quickly shuffling down the projected standings to previewing the race for the 14 seed, are perhaps the biggest bummer in the NBA. Wrong; the Suns are 13-9, playing hypermodern hoops and lodging themselves firmly in the playoff race. The player who typifies Phoenix's special season is Dillon Brooks.

Phoenix's most important player is still Devin Booker, who has made a big leap as a playmaker this season, though the guy most responsible for the stuff that Phoenix excels at is Brooks. The Canadian ass-kicker is enjoying the best statistical offensive season of his career, posting 22 points per game on slightly below-average shooting; in a season where Jalen Green has scarcely played and Grayson Allen's ankle sprain was a near-crisis, Brooks's willingness to take a bunch of shots and pull out his assortment of horrifically ugly one-on-one moves to make space matters a lot. But more than his scoring, it's Brooks's fight that is propelling his team.