Things haven't been going well for the Memphis Grizzlies as of late. It seems like half of the roster is injured once again, including Ja Morant, who simply hasn't looked like himself for a while. If we take a moment to think about what's transpired in the last few years for this franchise, we can pinpoint the exact moment things began to go downhill: the day Memphis decided to move on from Dillon Brooks.
That's a sentence many NBA fans would not have ever expected to read just a few short years ago. Brooks developed a certain reputation from the national NBA audience, but it was never one that was totally fair to him and all that he did for the Grizzlies.
Plenty will recall the 2023 playoff series between Memphis and the Los Angeles Lakers, wherein Dillon acted as an irritant to LeBron James and effectively poked the bear with his postgame comments. That ultimately backfired with the Grizzlies losing the series, and the team opting to move on from Brooks swiftly in the offseason.
In the end, this was the worst possible decision Memphis could have made. You can understand to a degree why they went in this direction. Brooks gave the Lakers billboard material in the playoffs, and it's easy to see why from the organization's perspective, they didn't feel like it was the best look.
The Grizzlies sorely regret giving away Dillon Brooks
But in the end, Dillon was the heart and soul of this team. Opting to get rid of him so quickly and decisively was a confusing move at the time, and it's even more baffling now. Fast forward to today, and the Grizzlies are left without that kind of hard-nosed, gritty enforcer that they used to have.
Brooks' impact extended beyond just playing solid defense and being a secondary creator offensively. He was a veteran locker room presence, but he was also an intimidator. The reason why the Warriors-Grizzlies rivalry had so much juice and grabbed so much attention nationally from 2021 until 2023 was that Memphis had an edge and a swagger to them, and it was obvious. You saw it every time you watched them play.
That edge is now virtually nonexistent, and it's increasingly obvious that it left town when Dillon Brooks did. He helped shape this team's culture, and now that culture of winning and grit has all but evaporated without him over the course of these last two-plus seasons.
The Grizzlies' problems today revolve around injuries and their best player looking like a diminished version of what he once was. But if we peel back the layers, we can see that everything changed in Memphis once number 24 hit the road.