Aaron Brooks Thriving as Chicago Bulls' Latest Derrick Rose Insurance
Sometimes, fit is everything.
Aaron Brooks has bounced around the NBA in his eight-year career, a real home always just out of his reach. In Chicago, he may have found one.
Brooks came to the Bulls in late July, after the dust had settled on their failed pursuit of Carmelo Anthony and eventual signing of Pau Gasol. He wasn’t a high-profile signing, or one that anybody thought too much about. He was an offensive reinforcement off the bench that, in an ideal world, Tom Thibodeau wouldn’t have to rely too heavily on because he’d be playing behind a full-strength Derrick Rose.
Instead, the 29-year-old Brooks has been the latest in a long line of scoring point guards whose careers have been resuscitated in the Windy City. In 15 games with the Bulls, he’s shooting 45.8 percent from three-point range and averaging 10.9 points per game off the bench.
In production and role, his nascent Bulls tenure is more in line with his promising career beginnings in Houston than the disappointing last few seasons.
“I don't know if you'd say it's the way I've always been playing because I had some rough years,” Brooks says. “But it's been a good few games.”
Brooks has had an up-and-down career. He was a key contributor to the Rockets’ 2009 playoff run and won the league’s Most Improved Player award a year later, averaging 19.6 points and 5.3 assists per game and shooting 39.8 percent from three-point range in 2009-10.
Since then, he’s become something of a journeyman. After being traded from Houston to Phoenix in 2011, he played in China during the lockout and signed a two-year deal with the Sacramento Kings in the summer of 2012.
He didn’t last a season in Sacramento, agreeing to a buyout and rejoining the Rockets midseason, only to be traded to the Denver Nuggets the following year. Brooks’ production has dipped since that career year in 2010, which is also the last time he’s played an entire season with a single team.
Coming into free agency after a productive stint with Denver (11.9 points and 5.2 assists in 29 minutes per game), the Bulls weren’t even on his radar, but they’ve proven to be a perfect fit.
“I don't know where the Bulls came from, honestly,” Brooks says. “During the summer, it wasn't really on my mind to go to Chicago, because I didn't know it was an option. We were looking at Denver. It seems like I always end up back in Houston.
“But then the Bulls came over and it was like, 'That's a perfect situation.' So it's a blessing. It's early, but hopefully it can continue progressing and get better.”
With Rose's health in limbo, the Bulls have gotten solid production out of a variety of athletic scoring guards for the past three years. In 2012-13, it was Nate Robinson. Last year, it was midseason signee D.J. Augustin, who led the team in scoring after Rose’s injury and January’s trade of Luol Deng.
Now, it’s Brooks’ turn. With Rose in and out of the lineup, Brooks’ role is less defined than those of his predecessors, who were operating without the 2011 league MVP from the beginning. Some nights, he’s a scoring stopgap when Rose plays. When Rose is out, he takes on a larger role, one his coach and teammates say he does very well.
“Aaron’s been great,” Rose says. “His mentality is what we need it to be right now. When we’ve had other guys come to the team, like D.J. and John Lucas, it took them a while to really get that mentality. And right now, he’s got that mentality right away. He can affect the game.”
“D.J. saved us last year,” Thibodeau says. “Aaron’s doing a great job filling in. They’re different, but they’re both excellent players. We were fortunate to have D.J. last year and we’re fortunate to have Aaron this year. They’re different players, but they’re both tough-minded and they can shoot.”
That adjective—tough-minded—is what connects all of Thibodeau’s successful point-guard reclamation projects. When he gets a player that wants to adapt to the role and put in the work, Thibodeau can work magic.
“Thibs puts guys in a position to be successful,” says Augustin, now with the Detroit Pistons. “It’s really on the player to come out and do what you need to do, but he puts guys in position. That’s a team that plays hard for all 48 minutes, they run their plays, and they don’t get rattled by anything.”
So far, Brooks is a fan of his new coach’s approach to things.
“We don't do useless drills,” he says. “It seems like everything is for a purpose. One thing I admire about Thibs is he's precise and he's consistent. Whether you like it or not, you have to respect the consistency. I think that's why he's a great coach.”
The relationship works two ways. Brooks is giving the Bulls some much-needed scoring off the bench, a steadying force while the rest of the team battles injuries. And in Chicago, Brooks is in an ideal position to re-establish himself as a viable player and earn himself some long-term security.
Robinson came to the Bulls in 2012 on a one-year minimum deal and signed a two-year, $4.1 million contract with the Nuggets a year later. Augustin was picked up off the scrap heap in December of 2013 after being waived by the Toronto Raptors; he parlayed a strong showing in Chicago into a two-year, $6 million deal in Detroit this summer.
Brooks was another minimum-salary flier for the Bulls, and if he keeps up his current performance, he’ll be in for his own longer guaranteed deal, whether in Chicago or elsewhere.
For now, though, he’s just glad to be on a team where he isn’t an afterthought.
“I think it translates to the court,” Brooks said of his newly stable situation. “You know, you've got to have confidence that a guy actually wants you here, and it's not just the GM that wants you there. You can feel it. It just makes you a happier person and it seems like you play better happy.”
So far, Brooks’ happiness is translating into production. And with the Bulls setting their sights on a title run in the spring, it’s not going to happen without him.
Sean Highkin covers the Chicago Bulls for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @highkin
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
