Grizzlies swingman Dillon Brooks has had trouble finding his shooting touch thus far this season, prompting Evan Barnes of The Memphis Commercial Appeal to wonder if the fourth-year player out of Oregon has already peaked in his development.
Brooks is in the first season of a three-year, $35MM extension he signed with the Grizzlies during the 2019/20 campaign. Though his scoring output has not decreased significantly (he is averaging 14.9 PPG compared to his career-high 16.2 PPG last year), Brooks is connecting on career-low percentages from the floor (37.5%) and the three-point line (28.4%).
There’s more out of the Southwest Division:
- Spurs power forward Luka Šamanić, the No. 19 pick in the 2019 draft who continues to try to carve out a place in the NBA, is returning to an Orlando “bubble” campus. After playing for San Antonio during last year’s summer restart at Disney World, he’ll join the team’s G League affiliate, the Austin Spurs, in the NBAGL bubble campus set to tip off on Wednesday, as Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News details.
- Undrafted Rockets rookie small forward Jae’Sean Tate, now a crucial rotation piece for a retooling Houston squad, had an interesting conversation with Kelly Iko of The Athletic, touching on his experiences in his first 22 NBA games and why he almost stopped playing basketball. The 6’4″ wing is averaging 8.5 PPG (on 52.1% shooting from the floor), 4.9 RPG, 1.6 APG, 0.8 SPG and 0.7 BPG across 25.9 MPG in Houston. “He has a lot of responsibility and he has to do things right on both sides of the floor,” head coach Stephen Silas said of Tate. “He’s getting better every game and you can see it.”
- Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant has struggled over his past three contests. Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian examines the potential root causes behind the trouble for Morant, who has shot just 13-of-39 from the floor in his last three games for Memphis, all losses.
Jae’Sean Tate is playing just as well as most of the rookie of the year candidates.
As he should; he’s 4 to 6 years older than all of them.
That isn’t really a fair comment, considering this is Tates first year in the NBA just as all the other candidates. Plus he has came from the same league the front runner Lamelo has come from last year. His age isn’t much of a factor. A rookie is a rookie.
So an undrafted player should be playing just as well at 25 as a top 10 pick does at 20? That makes sense.
I think you missed the point. I’m stating that expecting Tate playing much better because of his age is unfair and wrong. Tate has come into the NBA this year just like Lamelo from aus. I used him as an example because you can’t expect more of Tate just because of his age. Tate is killing it. He deserves to be in the convo for ROTY. He shows that the draft misses great players. but he isn’t on the same level as Ball or Haliburton.
I agree, my comment was in response to Fuss.
Sorry, I noticed that after replying. Either way Tate needs more recognition for how much he does for the Rockets.