JJ Redick on Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks: ‘I Want Him on My Team’

Dillon Brooks has made a name for himself as one of the NBA’s best agitators.

While his recent on-court banter with Lakers star LeBron James has gone wrong for him and the Grizzlies in their first-round series, former NBA player-turned-podcast host JJ Redick said he loves Brooks’s persona and that every good team needs a player like the Grizzlies forward.

“I love agitators,” Redick told Pelicans’ Trey Murphy III in an upcoming episode of his The Old Man & The Three podcast. “They are valuable to teams … Dillon Brooks has value, I really believe that. He is a guy that if you can figure out the offensive piece where it doesn’t hurt your team … I feel like right now the offensive piece is hurting the team, I want him on my team. … You need him on your team.”

Brooks went 3-for-13 from the field and scored just seven points before he was ejected for hitting James in the groin in Game 3. In Game 4 on Monday, he shot 4-for-11, scoring just 11 points in 41 minutes of action.

While Redick praised the need for players like Brooks, he did not like Brooks’s refusal to speak to media after a second consecutive game in the series.

“I just don’t like when guys don’t go in front of the cameras and don’t own it. Just own it,” Redick said.

After the Grizzlies’ 117–111 overtime loss to the Lakers in Game 4, Brooks said “I’m out” and didn’t speak with reporters, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. Brooks also refused to talk to media after Game 3, which came after his comment of calling LeBron James “old” following a Game 2 win.

While Brooks’s role with the Grizzlies is valuable, he’ll need to be much more than just an agitator for Memphis to extend the series and win Wednesday’s Game 5.