The NBA Is Back: John Collins Grabbed Dillon Brooks By The Throat Just Minutes Into The Suns/Pistons Preseason Game

Well that didn't take long now, did it! Earlier I blogged about how you can tell the NBA season is right around the corner because our timelines get blessed with Nikola Jokic making mind-bending passes. Well, another indicator is Dillon Brooks being a pest and finding himself in the middle of some sort of HOLDDDDDD MEEEEE BAAACKKKK situation. Everything about that entire sequence was vintage Brooks. Nothing overly dirty leading up to it, just little shots here and there to get under your skin. You can tell he knows he's getting under Collins' skin by the time they both went for that rebound, and from there Collins lost his shit a little bit with a solid choke grab. He had been successfully baited by Dillon Brooks

Giphy Images.

Admittedly, this was a bit of an overreaction for a preseason game, but at the same time I love the passion. Sometimes it doesn't matter if the games are fake, if Dillon Brooks is going to try his same old bullshit, then you have to be willing to do something about it. I'm actually a little surprised this didn't turn into more and Brooks sort of just let that neck grab happen. Is that growth? We'll have to wait until the games actually count to know for sure.

This was also a situation that reminded me that the Pistons did in fact trade Isaiah Stewart this summer. Make no mistake, Beef Stew isn't letting that happen. If he saw that dust up we know what was coming next

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Did the Pistons lose some very much needed toughness following that trade? It might be fair to ask given the fact that nobody on the Pistons was willing to throw down, especially Collins. That's certainly a different vibe compared to previous Pistons teams, so that'll be something to monitor during the season as well. 

All I know is, after the offseason we just had in combination with all the talent in the league and the fact that we already have players fighting in preseason, it feels like we're about to have a generational season in the NBA. I cannot fucking wait until October 21st if this is how we're trending. I can say with certainty that John Collins will NOT be the only player who ends up being baited and triggered by Dillon Brooks' antics this season, and I wouldn't be shocked at all if he started another brawl. You know he's going to go at LeBron in both Suns/Sixers games, but really I don't think it matters who it is. This is just what Dillon Brooks does for better or for worse.