The Houston Rockets are trying to replace Dillon Brooks with Marcus Smart, and that’s a gamble that looks shaky before it even gets going.
Houston missed Brooks badly in its first season without him last year, while the Phoenix Suns got real value out of a player who, as the source notes, became a fringe All-Star by caring about the regular season in ways few expected. Now the Rockets have turned to Smart to fill that kind of role, but the fit is already being cast as a problem for a team with ailing title hopes.
The comparison starts with age and availability. Smart is 32, two years older than Brooks, and his injury history is described as far worse.
There’s also a physical mismatch. Brooks brings a bigger frame that lets him bother elite scorers and plenty of other opponents, and that edge is part of what makes him so useful.
Smart doesn’t quite offer the same thing.
That gap was already on display in preseason, when Brooks showed his edge again with a technical against the Detroit Pistons, undoing his kung fu training in China in the process.
The bigger issue for Houston is that Brooks has shown he can pull an entire team into his style. He did it with the Suns and the Rockets, and before that with the Memphis Grizzlies. Smart, by contrast, is more of an added irritant than the kind of tone-setter who can define a contender’s personality.
That makes his expected role in Houston murky. If Fred VanVleet is healthy from the start, Smart is presumably headed to the bench, where he would be asked to make an impact alongside Kevin Durant.
How that is supposed to work is unclear, especially since it is no longer Brooks’ problem. Brooks is now in his second season in The Valley, knows exactly what he has to do to help the Suns win, and has already been part of a three-guard lineup that is said to be a nightmare for opponents.
The odd part is that Smart might actually fit better in Phoenix. The source points to a setup where he could have played alongside Brooks, shared the backcourt with Devin Booker, and worked under head coach Jordan Ott, who emphasizes defense.
Miles Bridges has already started his time with the franchise strongly, and there’s no reason Smart would have been different in that environment. The end-of-season picture could make Houston’s move look even rougher if the Suns and Rockets finish with similar records, Brooks has a major impact, and Smart does not. In that scenario, the Rockets’ attempt to patch over a Brooks-sized hole would look exactly like what it is: a risky fix that may not hold.
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