Though Aaron Brooks was the shortest player taken in last Thursday’s NBA Draft – listed at just 6 feet tall – Oregon fans know that the point guard from Seattle can play much bigger than his frame would suggest.
Those Duck fans have watched the guard improve the last few seasons into the second-best player in the conference last year.
Ask UCLA or Arizona. Brooks might be short, but his three-point shots and runners in the lane speak loudly.
Now, he has the chance to make a splash in the NBA with a team that looks to have a bright future with two established superstars.
Brooks wasn’t expecting to be picked by Houston – “I was very surprised when (the Rockets) picked me because I hadn’t heard from them in a long time,” he said on the team’s Web site. “I was getting a lot of feedback from other teams.”
He’s ready to play in red and white, though, saying, “Houston is a great fit. They’re on the right path and you can’t find a better situation than playing with Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.”
Some NBA pundits considered Brooks’ selection at the end of the first round to be a stretch – ESPN.com’s Chad Ford had him ranked only the 45th best player available, and his final mock draft had him going with the 57th pick. Plus, despite having one of the best centers in the game in Yao Ming, the Rockets are shallow in the front court and specifically at power forward. They lack a starting-level player at the power forward after trading Juwan Howard to the Timberwolves.
All of which makes drafting Brooks seem unlikely to the pundits, but not to the team. New head coach Rick Adelman is looking to push the tempo, and Brooks has proved he can do that in college.
“Aaron has great speed and an ability to get to the basket. In today’s NBA, that is fairly unguardable,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said on Houston’s official Web site. Morey also said that the team considered Brooks the best player available to them with the 26th pick.
Speed is something Brooks has in spades. At the pre-draft camp in Orlando, he posted a time of 3.2 seconds for the 3/4 court sprint, which made him one of the fastest players at the workouts.
Brooks’ strengths play into the hands of new Houston coach Rick Adelman. Oregonians may remember him from his stint coaching the Trail Blazers to two NBA Finals in the early ’90s. NBA fans remember him for leading the Sacramento Kings to eight consecutive seasons in the playoffs and a Western Conference Finals appearance in 2002. Adelman is known as a coach who likes to run an up-tempo offense and can get the best out of his players, so expect a more highlight-reel oriented offense for Tracy McGrady, Yao, and, possibly, Brooks.
Adelman was able to scout Brooks indirectly from his home in the Portland suburbs as the Ducks marched first to the top-10 of the nation, then to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
“He can attack the basket and I think that’s one area where we really needed help,” Adelman said on the Rockets’ Web site. “We need more people that can attack the basket and create situations where we can open up the offense.”
Despite his smaller frame, Brooks certainly can do that. Leading the Pacific-10 Conference in scoring with 17.7 points per game, Brooks was a strong candidate for the Pac-10 Conference’s Player of the Year award, which was won by UCLA guard Arron Afflalo.
Part of that scoring came from behind the arc, with 40.4 percent shooting from three-point range and 80 total threes adding to his 46 percent field goal average. If Brooks can adjust to the NBA’s deeper three-point range and continue to snake his way through the tall power forwards and centers roaming the Association’s lanes, he will become an NBA success.
To his own credit, Brooks certainly feels like he can survive at the next level. There are a lot of 6-4 guys that play like they’re 5-7,” Brooks said on Houston’s Web site. “I’m definitely going to need some help in the post against some of these guys, but I have my own advantages by being small. That’s what I’ve been capitalizing on.”
Though the roster hasn’t been announced yet, Brooks is in Houston and is expected to play on the Rockets’ Las Vegas Summer League team.