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Aaron Brooks Knows His Job; That's Why He Picked the Pacers

Aaron Brooks knows his place. Which is pretty impressive when you think about it, because he's been so many places in his NBA career.

Brooks will be making his seventh NBA stop in the upcoming season while playing for his sixth team, which happens to be the Pacers, who happened to offer the nine-year veteran point guard his best opportunity yet to make a deep playoff run.

He signed a one-year contract to secure a place on their roster, and the fact he slipped in and out of town so quickly and quietly to put ink to paper speaks volumes about his mindset. It took just half a day, and he had no interest in meeting with media members.

"Who cares about me?" he said, shrugging. "I'd rather just – you know what I mean? – just show up and play.

"I know my job."

The fact he turned down better financial offers from a few other teams also makes a statement. Winning is his first career priority at this point. He's never played for a team that went beyond the second round of the playoffs, and he's gone that far just once, in his second season, when Houston lost to the eventual champion Lakers in seven games.

His only conversation with a Pacers staff member before coming to Indianapolis to sign was with coach Nate McMillan, and he heard all he needed to hear – because he had already seen what he needed to see.

"The roster," he said. "I thought it was a great roster, and I felt like it needed somebody like me. I felt like they needed me and they wanted me and they liked my game. There wasn't much else to say. It's just a good team. I had other options, but they were teams that are rebuilding. At this stage of my career I wanted to go to a team that's more established.

"(The Pacers) win. They're a playoff team. They have a lot of pieces and they're trying to win a championship. I felt like they need a little more outside shooting to free up some players. I felt like that's where I can help out the most."

Brooks' desire to lay low doesn't reflect apathy or introversion. He's been working out at Bankers Life Fieldhouse with his new teammates since Aug. 22, and he was one of the few players to actually play in the Pacers Foundation Golf Outing presented by Gibson Teldata on Wednesday at Brickyard Crossing, lasting nine holes before family duties (he has three daughters, and a son to be named Aaron Jr. on the way) forced an early departure.

He is fairly quiet, though, and he's hardly bursting with ego. He was just one of the guys on the golf course with three strangers, and he plans to be the same with the Pacers on the basketball court. He'll back up Jeff Teague at point guard, fighting a young and hungry Joe Young for minutes off the bench. Team president Larry Bird said his only concern about his roster at the moment is that he might have too much talent in some positions. He didn't specify, but point guard figures to be the primary one suffering from potential congestion. Aside from Teague, Brooks and Young, Monta Ellis and Rodney Stuckey could factor into the position as well, although both are likely to be used more often as off-guards along with C.J. Miles.

Brooks' attitude and demeanor should help him cope with the crowded field of contenders for playing time.

"I think of myself as someone who gets the job done," he says. "I try to leave the game better than when I got in there. I'm more or less a relief pitcher. I can close, but I'm definitely not the starter or the closer. I'm someone who gets you through the sixth to eighth inning. At my age, that's perfect for me."

Brooks' age is 31 – he'll be 32 in January – but he doesn't seem to have lost much physically when given an opportunity. He's hoping his play in the upcoming season will earn another contract – multiyear, preferably – with the Pacers. But he needs a resurrection first.

You might remember that game in Chicago last season when the Bulls scored the go-ahead basket on a backdoor lob to Jimmy Butler for a layup with 1.2 seconds left, and then Paul George's attempt to force overtime failed when he was bumped while jumping to catch an inbound lob pass at the rim and no foul was called. You probably don't remember that Brooks scored a season-high 29 points in that game, hitting 11-of-20 shots, but here's proof.

That game was by far his peak moment, however. His second-highest scoring game was 17, and he wound up averaging 7.1 points, his lowest output since his rookie season in 2007-08. He was slowed by a hamstring and knee injury, but also drew some DNP-CDs from first-year coach Fred Hoiberg, who also had a healthier Derrick Rose and veteran Kirk Hinrich at point guard.

Brooks' decline was puzzling to Bulls fans, because the previous season under Tom Thibodeau he had averaged 11.6 points and was one of just two Bulls to play in all 82 games. And five seasons before that, he had been a sensation. A first-round draft pick out of Oregon by the Houston Rockets, Brooks became a starter in his second season and a star in his third. He averaged 19.6 points in 2009-10, hitting 40 percent of his 3-pointers and averaging 5.3 assists as well.

He won the NBA's Most Improved Player award that season, one year after Danny Granger won it for the Pacers, and seemed to have a happy and stable home. But a contract dispute and ankle sprain impacted his play the following season, and he was traded – five minutes before the trade deadline – to Phoenix for Goran Dragic and a first-round draft pick that became Nikola Mirotic.

Brooks has been passing through revolving doors ever since. He played the following season in China rather than sit out the NBA lockout, then returned to sign a one-year deal with Sacramento. The Kings waived him after 46 games. He then signed with Houston, which traded him during the following season to Denver. He then signed two one-year deals with the Bulls, and now has another one with the Pacers.

"We've always liked Aaron," Larry Bird said before Wednesday's golf outing. "He makes shots, he makes tough shots, and he's not afraid of the big shot at the end of the game."

Brooks can indeed score, as he proved to the Pacers first-hand last season. He's a 37 percent 3-point shooter, thrives in pick-and-rolls, and scores around the basket with jet-streamed floaters. He's a capable passer, too, and in fact considers himself nothing but a point guard, rather than a combo guard or occasional off-guard. Nobody has ever considered him a strong defender, but Bird has based his attempted roster upgrades on offensive-minded players such as Brooks and puts the burden on assistant coach Dan Burke to do the best he can with the defense.

Brooks' NBA career has been all over the map, both geographically and statistically. Just where he fits with the Pacers remains to be seen, but wherever it turns out to be he'll likely be content in that place. He's learned to embrace the ultimate fundamental of the NBA.

"I've been through a lot in my career," he said. "I'm just happy to be in the NBA still. I don't have a regular job; that's better than anything.

"I just go out there with no expectations and play the way I play. Hopefully it works. If it doesn't … I'll always be me and I'll always play hard."

Six Things to Know About Aaron Brooks

  1. His breakthrough game came in 2009, when he scored 34 points as Houston overcame the loss of Yao Ming to defeat the Lakers in Game 4 of a second-round playoff game. The Lakers won the series in seven games and went on to win the NBA championship. Brooks averaged 16.8 points in 13 playoff games that season, starting all of them.
  2. He established a career scoring record in January of 2010, when he scored 43 points in a triple-overtime victory over Minnesota.
  3. He hit all seven of his 3-point shots against Memphis in March of 2010, establishing a Houston franchise record.
  4. He became the sixth player in NBA history to have more than 200 3-pointers and more than 400 assists in a season in 2010.
  5. He scored 40 points in 38 minutes off the bench while playing for the Guangdog Southern Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association in January of 2012.
  6. He'll wear No. 00 with the Pacers. He's worn 0 since his college days at Oregon, with the exception of his partial season in Sacramento when he wore No. 3 because Toney Douglas had already claimed 0. C.J. Miles has 0 for the Pacers, so Brooks will go with the double-figure version of it.

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