The Phoenix Suns are in the midst of a brilliant season that nobody saw coming, and Dillon Brooks is a large part of the reason why.
He was recently snubbed for an All-Star reserve spot, with LeBron James ending up with the selection instead, but he bounced back immediately by being named Wester Conference Player of the Week for the first time in his career.
Brooks' intensity has always worn out its welcome
Hold the phone on all of this positivity though, because here come Sam Vecenie and Bryce Simon of The Game Theory Podcast to hit Suns fans with a dose of reality that they unfortunately need to hear.
Although both could not be higher on Brooks as a culture-setter in Phoenix and how hard he plays each night, notably bringing it to the super physical Detroit Pistons recently, they do not think this has a happy ending.
Again they were full of positives about his own superior confidence and how his teammates grow around him, but that has been the case in the past and he has always ended up being moved on.
"It wears after a little while, but when he gets there things change" was how Vecenie so succinctly put it. He's not wrong either, and this was especially the case in Memphis with the Grizzlies.
Vecenie did say that this was also the case with the Houston Rockets, but that seems unfair. Unless there was something going on behind the scenes we don't know about, he was simply traded for Kevin Durant and that is a fact even Brooks himself was quick to accept.
It is hard to escape the feeling that the 30-year-old may in time become too much for the Suns to handle on a daily basis, and that this is as good as it will get.
That is also an eventuality that fans need to prepare for, although it is not like Brooks is alone in this category. Several players on this roster including Brooks are having career years.
If the Suns or any team for that matter simply traded away players when they were at the peak of their value, not taking into consideration roster building or where a team is at, then there would be even less continuity then there already is.
You see Brooks make comments like this about Devin Booker, and you realize that no matter how this might end, in the here and now he has been everything Phoenix could have ever wanted.
It is ok to prepare yourself for a negative ending given what we've seen of Brooks in the past. But if this does end up being different, you can't decide to get back on this train.