With Dillon Brooks, there’s way too much uncertainty for Cavs

There’s too many offensive questions and uncertainty with Dillon Brooks

Brooks is known for his defense. He was regularly called upon by the Grizzlies to take on difficult matchups, and did well on plenty of occasions against top opposing wings and forwards. Brooks is also fluid enough to be able to contain his share of top guards and make them work for everything, which adds to the conversation involving his versatility as a target.

At 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds, and as an aggressive defender, Brooks has proven himself to be an impactful contributor over the course of his time with the Grizzlies on that end of the floor. He’d give the Cavaliers a go-to defender to match up with bigger wings and his strength could be useful in some lineups when it’s sensible for him to be taking 4s, additionally.

Brooks placed in the 68th percentile in primary defense of pick-and-roll ball handling scorers in the regular season, per Synergy Sports, which was noteworthy, considering only eight players defended more. As an off-ball defensive player, him placing in the 66th percentile in 288 primary contests of spot-up threats (per Synergy) was solid, too, for what it’s worth.

Part of the problem with Brooks, unfortunately, comes at the other end offensively. In the past two regular seasons, his three-point hit rate has been 30.9 and 32.6 percent on 4.7 and 6.0 attempts per contest, and it’s as if he’s lit it up in other areas of the floor.

His true shooting percentage has been 51.5 and 49.4 percent in those seasons, both being well below league average, and his 6-foot-6 wingspan mostly playing the 3, combined with a somewhat limited handle, doesn’t help him separate.

Plus, Dillon Brooks in Memphis’ six-game first round series loss to the Los Angeles Lakers shot just 31.2 percent from the field, and 23.8 percent from three. He shot 31.6 percent in Memphis’ six-game series loss in the Western Conference Semifinals last season to the Golden State Warriors as well, and then shot 32.4 percent from deep.

He was far more effective offensively in Memphis’ first round series win in six games over the Minnesota Timberwolves last season, but by and large, the guy has been streaky at best in his career from range. He did connect on 37.2 percent of his wide open three-point attempts in the regular season in 2022-23, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data, and 39.2 percent on those attempts in the 2021-22 regular season.

But in that Lakers series, Brooks shot only 28.1 percent on wide open deep ball attempts, and in the 2022 playoffs, shot 30.3 percent on those. One has to read into that with a grain of salt, and Brooks adjusting to more of an off-ball role this season has to be taken into consideration.

Theoretically, Brooks could be a guy who knocks down open threes off of feeds from Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. He’s had his moments for Memphis as a shooter.

The other part of the problem with Brooks, though, has been his awful shot selection, and with him dissatisfied with his role adjustment to more of a three-and-D contributor with the Grizzlies, why should Cleveland be confident he wouldn’t hijack possessions with them? One shouldn’t buy that. Brooks has had a respectable 14.5 points per contest in his career, but the lowlights have been prevalent in big spots, and his career true shooting rate has been 51.2, which is nothing to get excited about.

Lastly, from there, the Brooks on-floor antics are more of the reasoning to be skeptical of his potential signing.