Fourth-year forward Tari Eason thinks he deserves a larger role with the Houston Rockets during the 2025-26 NBA season, and he believes his improvements aren’t all physical.
During a recent conversation with Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, Eason said an offseason point of emphasis was improving his mental focus. And in many ways, that involves trying to emulate a former teammate, Dillon Brooks.
Among Eason’s comments:
I wanted to make sure that nothing can really throw me off or affect me.
I think Dillon (Brooks), what gave him an advantage over some people is what people didn’t know about him — he’s very cerebral. He’s watching the games. He’s watching tendencies. He’s watching so much basketball that that can really help him in certain ways. I’m probably a little bit more athletic than Dillon is. I can move around. I’m a little bit more switchable, so adding that to my game as far as the mental side that he brought, for sure, I think I could bring that and then some.
Per Mannix, Brooks taught Eason about “not getting caught up in a game.”
There’s 48 minutes in a game, so you can’t get upset over one miss. You can’t get upset over one bad shot, one bad play or outside factors like a coach yelling at you, things like that. Ime [Udoka] is tough on us, but that’s how I like to be coached at the same time.
Sometimes there was tension with that, but that’s always good because I think we grew a lot from that. So, just him teaching me not to get caught up in certain things, and then knowing what’s going to happen. Reading stuff or knowing plays and know what’s going to happen before it happens.
In today’s @SInow NBA newsletter:
▪️A look under the hood at the Lakers, who are talking like title contenders
▪️Tari Eason tells me he’s ready for Dillon Brooks-like role
▪️Rival execs weigh in on Nikola Jovic new deal
Subscribe below! 🔽— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) October 3, 2025
At Saturday’s training camp practice, Rockets Wire asked Eason about the value of learning from Brooks over his two seasons in Houston.
“Dillon helped me a lot,” Eason said. “He was someone that I talked to on road trips, in hotels, after games, before games… I could talk to him about life and a lot of things. I wish him nothing but the best over there in Phoenix.”
Brooks was one of two starters (along with Jalen Green) traded to the Suns as part of the offseason deal bringing All-Star forward Kevin Durant to Houston.
While Durant is a clear offensive upgrade, the defensive presence and leadership of Brooks will certainly be missed. The hope is that an expanded role for Eason — who wants to play more minutes — can potentially help fill that gap.
“The mental side of the game is just being level headed,” Eason said Saturday. “It’s not just about knowing everything on the court and being two or three plays ahead. It’s (about) being level headed, and knowing that one shot doesn’t need to affect certain things. It’s all around.”
Tari Eason on what the “bigger role” he wants would look like:
“More minutes and opportunities.”
Tari is hoping to exceed the 20-25 minutes that he averaged in his first three NBA seasons pic.twitter.com/XgVtmuzKMH
— The Rockets Wire (@TheRocketsWire) October 4, 2025
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: In 2025 offseason, Rockets forward Tari Eason focused on mental growth
