Rockets' Dillon Brooks Calls out Grizzlies: You Can See 'They Have No Swagger'

Another day and another instance of Dillon Brooks calling out an opponent.

And this time it was his former team.

"You can see now they have no swagger," the Houston Rockets forward said of the Memphis Grizzlies ahead of their Wednesday showdown, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.

"We have swagger. We have an identity we're building. Each and every game, we show it more and more. That's what I want for my guys. That's what I want for each and every guy on the floor: to play their best basketball."

Swagger or not, this has been a brutal start to the season for the Grizzlies.

Steven Adams, Brandon Clarke, Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard and Xavier Tillman Sr. are all injured, and star player Ja Morant is yet to play because he is serving a 25-game suspension. As a result, Memphis is 3-10, which is tied for the fewest number of wins in the Western Conference.

It is not where a team with championship aspirations in recent years wants to be, and Brooks clearly isn't too broken up about the struggles.

His Rockets are 6-6 and have been something of a roller coaster this season with a six-game winning streak in the middle of two three-game losing streaks, one of which is ongoing heading into Wednesday's contest.

There is reason for optimism with a group of Alperen Şengün, Jalen Green, Fred VanVleet, Jabari Smith Jr. and Brooks. It is a nice mix of young, promising talent and veteran presences, and Houston is in early playoff position.

It is also anything but surprising that Brooks is the one making headlines for his comments ahead of the game.

He rarely hesitates to speak his mind, including during infamous back-and-forths with LeBron James, and recently told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, "What I didn't like about Memphis was they allowed that so they can get out of the woodwork, and then I'm the scapegoat of it all.

"That's what I didn't appreciate. And then ultimately they'll come to me on the low, as men, one on one and tell me something, but then not defend me when everything went down."

The Grizzlies decided not to bring Brooks back this offseason, and there is apparently still some bitterness in place.

He will surely be under the spotlight on Wednesday when he faces his former team for the first time.