The Grizzlies have told Dillon Brooks, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, that he will not return to Memphis “under any circumstances,” The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports. According to Charania, both sides agreed at the exit interviews that it is best for both to move on.
Brooks has spent his entire career in Memphis, joining the Grizzlies as a second-round pick out of Oregon in 2017. He quickly established himself on the team, playing in 82 games as a rookie and averaging at least 14 points per game in each of the last four seasons.
However, Brooks’s propensity to trash talk seemed to do him in as he consistently went after the Lakers before the two sides met in the first round. He famously said about guarding LeBron James “I don’t care, he’s old,” and then, when asked about potentially angering James, added “I poke bears.”
However, Memphis lost three of the final four games of its first-round series against Los Angeles, and Brooks declined to speak to the media after each loss. After the series, Brooks said he doesn’t regret his words.
“I don’t regret it,” he said. “I’m a competitor, I compete. I don’t think it got LeBron geeked up.”
The veteran averaged just 10.5 points per game on 31% shooting and 23.8% from three-point range during the Grizzlies’ only postseason series, despite never shooting below 39.6% from the field and 30% from three in any season.
Brooks just finished the final year of a three-year, $35 million deal and will hit the free agent market entering his age-28 season.
