29. Dillon Brooks, Memphis Grizzlies
In his first season, Dillon Brooks made quite a few teams regret passing on him in the late first round/early second round of the 2017 NBA Draft. The Memphis Grizzlies didn’t win a whole lot, but in his first year in the league, the rookie cemented himself as one of the team’s most reliable players and an integral part of the young core moving forward.
Brooks averaged 11.0 points and 3.1 rebounds in his 28.7 minutes per game, suiting up for all 82 games. He shot a respectable 44 percent from the field, including 35.6 percent from deep, and provided the kind of tough, hard-nosed defense fans of the Grit-N-Grind can appreciate.
Brooks was still prone to making the kinds of mistakes you’d expect from any rookie, and with the team ratcheting expectations from “rebuilding year” to “playoff pursuit,” Brooks will have to be prepared for a drastic change of pace. However, assuming he starts most of the year at the 2 over Garrett Temple, while Kyle Anderson joins him at the 3, he should continue to make Grizz fans feel optimistic about this second round steal.