He's a great scorer with a lot of potential. 6'9, agile and athletic with a high motor and in his rookie season showed an uncanny knack for trailing through for offensive put-backs. He's got an OK jump-shot, quite streaky, but he can also put the ball on the floor and drive and finish at the rim. The problem is, does he possess championship level defense? 2012 NBA Champions - Miami Heat squad featured Wade and Lebron who could provide elite man defense on the perimeter as well as a defensive system in which their guards would aggressively blitz PnR ball-handlers with their bigs with everyone making aggressive rotations for help-defense. 2012 NBA Runners-up OKC Thunder feature Thabo Sefolosha who is a great wing defender 2011 Dallas Mavericks - Shawn Marion as the perimeter wing defender with Tyson Chandler anchoring were perfect to off-set Dirk Nowitzki's defensive weaknesses. 2008-2010 Lakers - Featured Ron Artest and Kobe in spurts. 2005 San Antonio Spurs - Bruce Bowen, one of the GOAT perimeter defenders. Let's compare those squads to the current Rockets. Yes, we're a young team, and Harden could certainly put forth some more effort on defense and lead by example, but he doesn't have the physical tools to be an elite perimeter defender. He has never demonstrated the aptitude, nor the drive throughout his career. He played Kobe quite well the OKC-Lakers series periodically when Kobe tried to post him up but he doesn't possess great lateral quickness nor length to be able to trouble the elite wings of the league. So than what would be his ideal complement? A SF who can provide elite perimeter defense to compensate. Asik is a great anchor but his abilities on the defensive end haven't been truly highlighted because of our uptempo offense, his appalling PF partners, our defensive rotations and game-plan is non-existent and Parsons and Harden have been a revolving door on the defensive end.
once he becomes consistent and gets his defense back to the way it was last season. He is leading the team in shot being blocked at the rim.
He's a jack of all trades player. He can do a bit of everything, but isn't really good at any one thing. I thought last year that he might develop into a very strong defender, but he doesn't seem to be defending as well this year.
He scores because a lot of the offense runs through him. Staggered screens are set all day for him to get the ball at the elbows and he's got the biggest green light in the world to shoot it or put it on the floor and drive it. He's quite good at it, but not elite. Meanwhile on the defensive end Paul George smoked us in the Indiana game, Shawn Marion made him his b**** in the Dallas game, and now Kirilenko in the Timberwolves game. He gets bullied by any SF who wants to do it and he's forgotten what defense means.
we're overrating Chandler..i'll pick Prince over him in order to pair with our defenseless back court duo.
Why is it a bad shooting performance and people all of a sudden people question if he is good fit? He is a team player, game before 16pts on 9 shots. He doesn't get upset if he isn't shooting it. He doesn't force the issue. Overall he is a smart player who is great locker room guy. Look at his stats going into tonights game, he is a 15 and 6 guy with 3.5 assists and decent overall shooting percentages (certainly not bad). Go look for a better value at 1 mil a year. There should be zero complaints about how he is playing so far this season. I think he brings more to the table on and off the court to have people question if he is a good fit. His D might have went down lately but obviously everyone on the team is going through a funk in that regard and others offensively are going through it. I've been a fan of his as a gator fan and always been a rocket fan. I admit I am bias cause that but I think his increased numbers and hard work can speak for that. I want him stay his whole career with the rockets
Not enough to build around but a fantastic player. I honestly think he still has a lot of ceiling but he doesn't seem to have an alpha dog mentality. A competitor but not somebody who seems to want to be the guy.
The Rockets will never trade him, they will get their money back by pimping him out with ladies night meet and greets.
Part of the reason is that he is being asked to do a lot offensively. Parsons is only in hi second year. He has proven that he can be a good defender. He just needs to learn how to put it all together. Keeping up his energy on D while carrying that offensive burden. This takes time, he is really young. I like Parsons I think he is a good player. I disagree with people that say he isn't really good at anything. An area of Parsons development I am most interested in, is his facilitating. He is a really good passer for his position a really good rebounder as well & has proven to be a really good defender. He has a vast array of offensive moves when driving to the basket. He also stays healthy & is young with a lot of upside. I love Parsons at the SF position.