The Houston Rockets are missing guard Aaron Brooks when they meet the Denver Nuggets next. This is due to Brooks abruptly leaving the court in the middle of the fourth quarter. He was presumably upset after being substituted.
Following his on court actions he was duly suspended for only one game for what was undoubtedly unnecessary behavior on his part, while on court in the fourth quarter in their win playing against Memphis Saturday. Brooks has reportedly been increasingly unhappy about his diminished role in the current team setup. Subsequently, Brooks was left behind for the trip to Denver.
Rick Adelman, the coach of the Rockets said that he has not communicated with Brooks at all, but he did add he felt that the attitude and behaviour of Brooks was wrong and that now he (Brooks) will have to answer for his actions.
The Rockets handed in no extra comments on the Brooks situation, but it seems clear to everyone, the Rockets have a saga brewing in their team which should be sorted out sooner than later.
While Aaron Brooks is coming off a perfectly good year in which he was rewarded with the Most Improved Player, it has been evident that he has been spending less on court time of late. It all seemed to have originated during the last offseason? Brooks was unhappy that he was not handed an expected extension on his current contract by his team, who decided to add some extra power to their guard rotation when they re-signed point guard Kyle Lowry and also obtained the services of Courtney Lee after a trade.
It has not been easy for Coach Adelman to select his best combination of minutes among his available guards in the Rockets team. With the ankle injury Brooks suffered back in November 2010 and the fact that Lowry performed very well in his extended absence, Adelman stuck with starting Lowry and using Brooks only as a sixth man. Another obvious reason is also the bigger stature of Lowry versus Aaron Brooks. The former is admittedly a much better defender overall too.
In a total of 28 games Brooks is averaging 12.2 points and 4.1 assists. He did miss a total of 24 games because of the sprained left ankle he sustained and which gave him discomfort for some time. This ultimately had a huge influence on his season at the Rockets as well.
