{"id":519106,"date":"2026-01-05T23:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/519106\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T23:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:52:15","slug":"dillon-brooks-is-not-going-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/519106\/","title":{"rendered":"Dillon Brooks is &#8216;not going anywhere&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dillon Brooks has been labeled a villain, agitator and disruptor in his nine seasons in the NBA. For those reasons and his basketball skill, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia didn\u2019t leave any room for trade speculation regarding the forward after a big win against the league-best Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t bother calling \u2026 Suns aren\u2019t interested (in a trade),\u201d Ishbia said Monday <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Mishbia15\/status\/2008268422698988017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">on X<\/a> in response to former NBA player Boogie Cousins proposing a Lakers\u2019 Austin Reaves-Brooks swap. \u201cDillon\u2019s not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a firmer stance but not a change in tone for Ishbia on Brooks, who just before Thanksgiving on \u201cThe Draymond Green Show\u201d podcast said Brooks is \u201cexactly what we\u2019re about\u201d with the team in its first year under a new head coach and general manager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe might agitate the other 29 teams, but for us, he\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re about,\u201d Ishbia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cwjDNJmgsrU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said<\/a> on Nov. 24 with Golden State Warriors\u2019 Green. \u201cHe plays as many games as he can play. He wants to compete every game and he\u2019s going to do what he can to help us win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brooks has been largely available, playing in 29 out of 35 games for Phoenix (21-14), and his 21.4 points per game is only behind Devin Booker\u2019s 25.7. Plus, his <a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/haboob-blog\/dillon-brooks-lebron-james\/3606593\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">fearless offensive mentality<\/a> has helped the Suns more than it has hurt them, with 14 points in the fourth quarter and a clutch-time 3 against the Thunder on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>The 2023 All-Defensive Second Team member is averaging the second-most minutes per game (30.9) in his career \u2014 31.8 in 2024-25 with the Houston Rockets \u2014 and is both making more buckets and shooting more shots (7.9 and 17.1 per game, respectively) than at any other point in his professional career.<\/p>\n<p>Brooks is owed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/23646\/dillon-brooks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">average salary of $21.5 million<\/a> through 2026-27 and will be an unrestricted free agent prior to the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n<p>As alluded to by Ishbia, Brooks is prone to getting caught up in the crosshairs of any given game, but despite his 12 technical fouls and two ejections, the 6-foot-7 Oregon Duck clearly fits the identity the team owner set before the season: a squad that grinds and \u201cdoesn\u2019t just cash in\u201d when adversity strikes.<\/p>\n<p>On the heels of a gigantic W over Oklahoma City, Brooks faces his former team in the Rockets (21-11) on Monday at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pwmoses11\" data-show-count=\"false\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Follow @pwmoses11<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/arizona-sports-newsletter-signup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AZSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"mobile-signup\"\/>\t&#13;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AZSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"desktop-signup\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dillon Brooks has been labeled a villain, agitator and disruptor in his nine seasons in the NBA. For&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1516,7,1515,6,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-519106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-arizona-sports-now-on-98-7-fm","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-home","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-phoenix-arizona-sports-news-phoenix-breaking-sports-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115845185264061051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}