Dillon Brooks is currently sidelined with a fracture in his left hand that he suffered in the Suns’ 113-110 double overtime win against the Magic. His expected timeline for return is two to three weeks.
Therefore, he is already thinking about the postseason as his regular season seems to be nearing its end. He might return with a few games left in the regular season, but he is confident that the Suns will maintain their record to successfully make it to the Playoffs.
During a recent interview with Gillie da Kid (Nasir Fard) from the ‘Million Dollaz Worth of Game’ podcast, Brooks made a bold claim on the Suns’ preference to face the Timberwolves in the Playoffs and gave a debatable reasoning for it.
“You know, they’re having a great year this year, win a chip, whatever, and whatnot. But if they run into us, they’ve got problems. We’ve got their number,” said Brooks while discussing the Timberwolves’ performance this year.
“There’s no one on the team that can bang with him, so I’ll guard Julius,” said Brooks on why he would guard Julius Randle instead of Anthony Edwards if the Suns face the Timberwolves in the playoffs, predicting a “great” performance against the former All-Star in the individual matchup.
Brooks moved on to recall their past meetings with the Timberwolves this year. The Suns surprisingly won both matchups in which they faced the Timberwolves in the regular season. Even when the Wolves were fully healthy, and Jalen Green missed both, and Devin Booker missed one of those games for Phoenix.
“There was one game that we were here, [in the] In-Season Tournament, Book got fouled out, I got fouled out, and we still won the game,” said Brooks while talking about the first matchup that ended 114-113 in the Suns’ favor.
The Canadian swingman recalled Devin Booker was not available in the second matchup, and still, the Suns managed to beat them again. Therefore, he believes that their regular season record gives them the edge over the Timberwolves if they face them in the playoffs.
Here are my two key takeaways from Brooks’ reasoning. Firstly, the regular season and the playoffs are very different in terms of how teams approach games. Therefore, the regular season record is a bit irrelevant when it comes to deciding the favorite to win a seven-game playoff series.
Secondly, several playoff series have boiled down to individual matchups. If we are considering the regular season record, we should also consider that Anthony Edwards dropped 40 points in each of their meetings with the Suns. Since Brooks said he would guard Randle, the Suns may have no answer for Anthony Edwards down the stretch in a seven-game series.
The Timberwolves star is averaging 40.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists while shooting 64.4% from the field and 44.4% from beyond the three-point line in the two games he played against the Suns.
However, I do have to also consider the fact that despite the masterclass performances from Edwards, the Suns managed to win both games without Jalen Green and even in Devin Booker’s absence for one of their matchups.
Dillon Brooks averaged 20.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists while going 40.5% from the floor and 37.5% from beyond the arc against the Timberwolves this season.
The Suns are currently 36-27, sitting at seventh in the Western Conference before tonight’s game against the Hornets. They are currently 2.5 games behind, breathing down the necks of the Nuggets (39-25).
Meanwhile, the Timberwolves are 40-24, currently fourth in the West. They have an equal record with the Rockets (39-23 before their game against the Spurs today) and are simply in fourth due to winning percentage.
With less than 20 games left in most teams’ regular season schedules, the Timberwolves’ most likely best finish would be third in the West. They would face the Suns in the first round if Phoenix manages to remove the Nuggets from the sixth spot over their remaining games.
In my opinion, the Suns could experiment with Collin Gillespie and Devin Booker guarding Anthony Edwards, but their best shot at stopping the Timberwolves star would be to have Brooks on him as well, since he is their best defender.
Hence, it will be a competitive series and not one-sided if they face each other in the playoffs. The Suns’ matchup with the Timberwolves will certainly not be a cakewalk for either team.
