Rockets fans can forget about their greatest regret in the Kevin Durant trade

Dillon Brooks has been having a career-best season since the Houston Rockets traded him to the Suns. They shouldn't be missing him too badly.

It sounds strange. Brooks is averaging 22.3 points per game. It's a career high by a long shot - Brooks' next-best career average is 18.4, and he's a 14.4 point per game scorer for his career.

It's been an unexpected development. The Rockets traded an inefficient volume scorer (Jalen Green) and a 3-and-D wing in Brooks for a peak efficiency volume scorer in Kevin Durant. If Brooks is a volume scorer too, that changes the calculus of the deal:

But his inefficiency tremendously softens the blow.

The Rockets are still better off for Durant deal

Brooks is hitting 31.0% of his 7.4 three-point attempts per game this year.

That is...bad. It's a far cry from the 39.7% he hit for the Rockets last year.

Give Brooks credit. He seems to have a unique ability to provide a team with what they need. For the Rockets, he needed to be a 3-and-D wing. The Suns have been without Green and/or Booker at varying times this season, so they've needed someone to step up and get buckets.

Brooks has been able to do it. Yet, this isn't what the Rockets would need from him this year. They'd need - you guessed it - a 3-and-D wing.

If Brooks' career is any indication, this dip in efficiency was always going to come.

The Rockets need high-efficiency shooting

Look at Brooks' career three-point percentages. It's hard to get a handle on his abilities. He's wildly inconsistent. In the aggregate, Brooks is shooting 35.3% from deep for his career.

That's fine, but it's unexceptional. We can assume Brooks would be shooting better than 31.0% on a Rockets team with more threats around him, but his career suggests that the 39.7% was going to drop.

It feels like the Rockets rostered and traded Brooks at the perfect times. He was fantastic in Houston. Rockets fans love him, and rightly so. Brooks' dogged defense and competitive intensity have fostered a culture in Space City.

So, thank him for what he did, but don't miss him too badly. Brooks gave the Rockets what they needed, but it's unlikely he'd be able to do it again. Just be thankful for the good times:

But let him have his good times on the Suns now.