Suns’ Dillon Brooks on being aggressive on defense, ‘villain’ persona
Phoenix Suns’ Dillon Brooks described his physical style of play and bringing “competitive fire” to every game.
Diannie Chavez and Diana Payan/The Republic
- Dillon Brooks received a cut over his eyebrow from an elbow during a team practice.
- Brooks has accumulated 49 technical fouls over the past three seasons.
Dillon Brooks noticed Jordan Ott in a media scrum while walking toward the front door of the team’s practice facility.
Within shouting distance, Brooks called for the first-year head coach to let it be known how he got cut over the eyebrow in Friday’s practice, Oct. 17.
“Hey, Coach, tell them how hard our practice is,” Brooks said. “I got a split in my head. Tell them how hard we play defense.”
Smiling in reaction, Ott said, “Definitely might get a couple of stitches there.”
Ott continued answering the initial question. Once he finished, Ott was quickly asked what happened to Brooks.
“He got hit on an elbow,” Ott said. “Freak play. They were in the middle, I guess, the last part of practice, he just got split open, I think, right along the eyebrow. I’m sure he’ll play that one up, how many stitches he has. We’ll all hear how many stitches it gets.”
Just Brooks being Brooks on defense.
“He was defending a little too close and he got clipped,” Ott said.
Brooks has established himself as the physical, tough and intense tone setter in just a matter of months. The Suns acquired Jalen Green, the 10th overall pick in the 2025 draft, Khaman Maluach and Brooks from Houston in the Kevin Durant trade.
“He got two techs in a pickup game in the middle of the summer,” a laughing Collin Gillespie said.
Brooks racked up an astounding 49 technical fouls in the past three seasons, based on FOX Sports NBA stats.
“He’s nuts,” Gillespie continued. “He’s a guy that you hate to play against and love when he’s on your team. If you don’t know him, you probably think that he’s crazy, but he’s super chill off the court, and then once he’s between the lines, it’s like, he has that ‘villain’ he’s got going, and it’s like a switch inside his head. He’s a different person.”
The Suns had a light scrimmage on Oct. 17 and plan to have a longer one on Oct. 18, during which Brooks is bound to leave his imprint.
“If we ever want intensity in practice, we just have them play 5-on-5,” Ott said. “It’s instantly brought. Dillon leads it, for sure, but everyone picks up their play. That entire ‘purple’ squad, Oso (Ighodaro) has grown into someone that will chirp back. Collin brings his own edge to it. That’s who these guys are.”
Mark Williams participated in the scrimmage while Jalen Green didn’t. Green will miss the Oct. 22 season opener against Sacramento as he aggravated a left hamstring strain in China, where the Suns spent a week and played the Brooklyn Nets twice.
“He’s done live with us before, but now he’s fully participating,” Ott said about Williams. “We didn’t scrimmage a ton today. The plan is tomorrow to do more scrimmaging.”
Brooks has become known as “The Villain” throughout the league for his aggressive, passionate and intense play that tends to boil over.
He’s verbally combative and revels in getting under the opponent’s skin.
“Tough, physical, no-nonsense type of stuff,” Gillespie said. “He won’t take anything. Kind of can project that to the rest of the team and he sets the tone, brings the energy. I think once other guys see it, they feed off that energy.”
Brooks has anointed a Suns teammate “Villain Jr.” but kept it under wraps early in training camp.
“This one is going to be hard to find out,” Brooks said after practice on Oct. 15. “Once you hear the name, you’re going to say, ‘I can see’ because he’s a hard-nosed player, but he wanted it. That’s the thing. I love it.”
Gillespie was asked if he’s the one.
“I don’t know,” Gillespie quickly said.
Turns out it was Gillespie as Brooks announced it on the team’s X account.
Gillespie believes the Suns have “a lot of guys” with that aggressive mentality.
“A lot of guys that are hungry, competitive, want to win and will do anything to win,” Gillespie said. “I think we got a lot of guys who are similar in that sense.”
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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