Aaron Brooks

Aaron Brooks
PG, 6’0, 161lbs, 32 years old, 9 years of experience

This was a poor year for Brooks, who shot as inefficiently as ever while also not shooting as much as usual. Since scoring is the only thing he is brought in for, he should at least do it on some volume, but he did not do so this year. Brooks has not the defensive ability to purely be a catch-and-shoot player, even though he shoots such shots on good volume. You can get 37.5% catch-and-shoot players who can guard the position instead of him. So as frustrating and inefficient as it can be at times, Brooks needs to be allowed to free-roam offensively. Otherwise, there is no point playing him. And if he still can’t perform even with relatively free rein, as seemed to be the case this year, then perhaps his time has passed.

Player Plan: Expiring minimum salary contract. Didn’t earn another one.

In the past four NBA seasons, there have been 208 occasions on which a player has scored 40 or more points - regular season and playoffs combined. Fifty-seven players have combined for those 208 outbursts, including such unlikely names such as Luis Scola, C.J. Watson and C.J. Miles.

Most of the players are stars, or were stars at the time. Many still are. But some of those players have fallen from this intermittent grace so badly that they now only earn the minimum salary.

Despite their proven potency, Nick Young, Al Harrington, Anthony Morrow, Aaron Brooks and Michael Beasley are now earning as little as a player can - in the case of Beasley, not one dollar of this minimum is even guaranteed. This was agreed to less than three calendar years from his 42-point game, quite the backwards progression.

Houston's trade of Aaron Brooks to Phoenix in exchange for Goran Dragic and a lottery protected first round pick represents quite a decent return for a man whose value has imploded this season. In freefall from his 19/5 averages last season, Brooks lost his starting job to Kyle Lowry, didn't take it well, and has crawled to a 11.8 PER. If you're a fan of win shares, note also that Brooks has thus far recorded only 0.2 of those puppies this season, quite the collapse from being a near 20 point scorer last season. The same could be said of the value of Dragic - one of the game's best backup point guards last season, Dragic has struggled mightily this season, turning the ball over at an enormous rate and rocking a true shooting percentage of only .492%. Nevertheless, Dragic has a team option on his contract this summer, which, if declined, will see him enter restricted free agency. If Houston has Dragic in their long term plans, it might be worth considering declining the team option and retaining him long term for a cheap price while his value is low, rather than having to pay him in the summer of 2012 when he may have rebuilt his value and is no longer restricted. A Carlos Boozer-type situation seems unlikely.