Phoenix Suns veteran Dillon Brooks is already proving to be everything the team needs—and the exact type of player they wish they'd had a season ago. A vocal leader in the locker room, competitive tone-setter in practice, and 3-and-D specialist in games, Brooks was the missing piece from the Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant era.
Unfortunately, the Suns got him a year too late—a truth they'll hope to reconcile with by building a brighter future with his leadership as a central piece of the puzzle.
Brooks, 29, joined the Suns via the trade that sent Durant to the Houston Rockets. Jalen Green is perhaps the more heralded returning player from the simple perspective of representing Phoenix's best opportunity to overcome the loss of Durant's scoring prowess.
That, of course, isn't suggesting that Green can match Durant's scoring output, but he's only 23 and has averaged 20.9 points per game over the past three seasons.
For as fair as the excitement for Green may be, what Brooks brings to the table may prove even more significant. He's a tenaciously competitive player whose defensive consistency has gone unquestioned. For a Suns team in dire need of a culture change, Brooks is also a proven commodity.
With a history of helping to change the culture of a team in dire straits and the two-way value the Suns desperately need from their perimeter players, Brooks is both too late and right on time.
Dillon Brooks was exactly who Suns needed during KD-Booker-Beal era
Brooks effectively achieved in Houston what Phoenix needed to accomplish itself. Brooks joined a franchise that had undergone drastic changes in recent years and had seemingly lost its way on the defensive end of the floor.
There were other issues within the Rockets organization, but the addition of key veterans in Brooks and Fred VanVleet led to a shift in the landscape.
The results were remarkable, as Houston went from 22-60 the year prior to Brooks' arrival to 41-41 during his first season and 52-30 in 2024-25. It went all-in on defense, ranking No. 5 in defensive rating in 2024-25, and played with the endless vigor that has defined Brooks' career.
Phoenix, meanwhile, built a trio of stars that was undoubtedly impacted by injuries, but simultaneously struggled to overcome the team's overall defensive inconsistency.
Phoenix ranked No. 27 in defensive rating in 2024-25, which sealed its fate as a talented team on the outside looking in of the playoffs. It was No. 13 in 2023-24, when it finished the season at 49-33, but it still seemed to lack the edge it needed.
One can only hope that adding Brooks can mark the beginning of a fruitful era in which Booker will have the surroundings he needs to excel.
With a perimeter trio of Booker, Brooks, and Green, the Suns certainly aren't short on shooting. The ideal difference between this trio and the last, however, is that Brooks and Green come from a culture in which defense is the first priority.
If that translates well to Phoenix, then a team with less notoriety may ultimately achieve more than the group that was meant to contend but never managed to.