Canadian Brooks chasing NBA dream
Former Oregon Ducks star works out for hometown Raptors ahead of June 22 draft
Dillon Brooks is everything on the court that his nine-month-old 70-pound Rottweiler isn’t.
The Mississauga native and Oregon Ducks standout was home for a pit stop and as he makes his way through the NBA draft workout process, probably the most hectic month and a half of his young life. This was his fourth workout. “I’ll do all 30 if they call,” Brooks said.
This particular workout was significant in that it was for his hometown Raptors. It also meant he was able to renew acquaintances with his pet, not to mention family and friends, as he begins a journey he hopes takes him to his ultimate goal: a long-term gig in the NBA.
On the court Brooks is all passion and determination and in-your-face aggression.
Off it, he tends to compare himself more to his young pup.
“He’s a soft, friendly dog for sure,” Brooks said of his canine companion. “We went to the dog park, he was getting bullied. He’s a little soft, he likes to lie around. He’s a loving dog.”
Off the court, that could describe Brooks as well. But once the ball is tipped, the comparisons end.
“He doesn’t see me on the court,” Brooks said, when asked how his own in-game demeanour hasn’t worn off at least a little on the puppy.
“Off the court, I’m nice, loving, calm, cool, monotone person and that’s what he takes.”
Brooks isn’t athletic enough to allow that side to show when the lights come on. In the game, he’s ultracompetitive; he’ll have to be to survive in a league where ultra-athletic and freakish body shapes of all sizes are the norm.
At 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Brooks doesn’t tip the scales in those freakish dimensions, nor does he have that Gadget-like wingspan that turns ordinary players into extraordinary, so the only alternative is to out-work and out-compete the next guy, something Brooks has done since he picked up a basketball.
In his final year at Oregon, Brooks averaged 16.1 points a game, shot 48 per cent from the field and 40 per cent from three-point range.
“Dillon is a guy who brings so much passion to the table,” Raps’ director of scouting Dan Tolzman said after the six-man workout on Monday. “Whatever he doesn’t offer skill/talent wise, he makes up for just with his winning plays and outplaying his opponents. I think he has shown he can score and defend and do all the things you look for in an energy-type guy and he brings that.”
At the moment, Brooks projects somewhere around the middle of the second round for the June 22 NBA draft. The Raptors own the No. 23 pick in the first round but are without a second-round pick this year.
But if the Raptors want Brooks badly enough, they can find a way.
“We don’t have a second-round pick right now, but we’ve shown that we’re always able to get back in if we need to,” Tolzman said.
And getting a second pick might not be the only way Toronto corrals a local product like Brooks.
Under the new collective bargaining agreement that comes into effect at the start of the 2017-18 season, teams have two additional roster spots, allowing them to maintain a player’s rights and shuttle him back and forth to the D-League while making more than the D-League wage.
Those with three years or less of NBA experience can be signed to these two-year deals. In Brooks’ case, if he went undrafted, he could be signed as a free agent using one of these two spots, ensuring he could still get some seasoning in the D-League and not be scooped up by a rival NBA team.