At this point, I feel the Grizzlies are using Dillon Brooks as a scapegoat.
I don’t think LeBron was going to play any differently because of what Brooks said to the media. LeBron has been in the league for 20 years. This isn’t the first time he has heard a little trash talk.
It actually made the series more interesting.
The Grizzlies were shorthanded, inexperienced, and injured. That is the reason they lost the series, not Dillon Brooks. I don’t think bringing him back or not bringing him back will make much of a difference next season, either.
Here is what Brooks was told via The Athletic.
The Memphis Grizzlies have informed pending unrestricted free agent Dillon Brooks that he will not be brought back under any circumstances, league sources tell The Athletic.
After his tumultuous end to the season, Brooks was told about the Grizzlies’ decision to move on in exit meetings with team officials in recent days, those sources said. Memphis and Brooks discussed in exit meetings that it’s best for both sides to have a fresh start, sources added.
Brooks’ first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers was considered to be a breaking point. In the span of the Grizzlies’ series loss in six games, he called LeBron James, the Lakers’ best player and a four-time NBA champion, “old,” “tired,” and suggested he was not as good as he used to be. Brooks punched James in the groin area in Game 3, earning an ejection. He missed a defensive assignment to help on James on the game-tying basket in Game 4, and then gave up a critical basket to James in overtime of that loss. Brooks also chose not to speak to the media after three of the losses in the series, resulting in a $25,000 fine by the NBA.
Until Ja Morant develops a consistent jump shot and stops beating up little kids, I don’t see much changing for the Grizzlies in the future.
Flip the pages for some of the Twitter reactions to Brooks not being brought back.
