[youtube]AbAHlN84sEs[/youtube] At 44:29, Jacoby says Rockets did not improve this off-season, claiming that Rockets losing out on fast-breaks without Parsons. Jalen disagrees, says he likes what Mavs are doing, but Ariza is an upgrade from Parsons because of his D. "Ariza is an upgrade," said Jalen Rose. "He's a much better defender than Chandler Parsons. I think it's a good move." Other predictions: Spoiler 1. Rondo likely getting traded to NYK with expirings, playing w/ Melo - Jalen 2. Wiggins likely getting traded for Love - Jalen/Jacoby 3. Lance Stephenson likely to stay a Pacer - Jalen 4. Bulls will be 1st in EC - Jalen Lock if already posted, all that stuff
I was thinking the same Jalen said. Ariza is gonna be better for this team than Parsons precisely because of his D. The only concern I have right now is our backup C. We can replace what Lin gave us but can we find a good 4/5 that can backup Howard if need be?
I can't believe I'm going to say this but he's right. The defense that will get from the wing position with the additions of Trevor Ariza, Nick Johnson, and Kostas Papanikolaou was something we were sorely missing last year. Last year Beverly was essentially our only good wing defender. As long as we get a back up center, talent wise, we will be as good if not better then last year.
I wanted Ariza above Parsons even if we had Bosh, but the way the salary cap works made that an impossibility.
I have a hard time saying we "improved", but I do think the team is more well-rounded than last years with because of the added defense with Ariza and Nick Johnson. Time will tell whether that ends up being true or not.
We lost Asik, Lin and Parsons. Lin >> won't be difficult to replace his production. Not because he's not a good player, but because a lesser player with a more compatible skillset will fill that production with ease. I can't imagine replacing Lin with Jameer Nelson, for example, will cause us to lose much, if anything. Sometimes we were very desperate for our PG to be a 3pt threat and we may get that now. Asik >> Apparently our record with him and without him was similar. The most important thing he did for us was do a great job on a red-hot LMA. If we get someone like an Emeka Okafor, I think we will be equally good at backup C if not better. Parsons >> I think we barely lose anything here. Parsons is superior on offense, and Ariza is equally superior on defense. You might even argue that the inverse Parsons (i.e. better on defense worse on offense) is a better fit for this team as long as Ariza can hit 40% of his 3's. But let's say we got a little bit worse here for argument's sake. So potentially, we get slightly worse with each of these replacements. Well guess what, it is likely to give us a $30m discount just in the coming season. That's a heck load of money. To use those savings, we have the MLE, BAE, $8.2m TPE. We have the NOLA pick, and two good additional second rounders next summer, as well as our own 2nd rounder and all our own first and second rounders from 2016 onwards. We are not going to be as good as we thought - i.e., the absolute best roster in the league. But that was never an option. What we will get is better than last season (4th seed) and a whole lot more flexibility to make upgrades than we would have if we locked ourselves into Parsons. Parsons is not going to improve the Rockets dramatically, but we have the flexibility to improve the Rockets dramatically in the very near future. I'm annoyed at losing out on Bosh, but we are good and we are certainly going to get better. We are also certain that the Mavs will be whatever they are for the next 3 years and any improvements Parsons makes is likely to be negated by the slow decline of Nowitzki and T Chandler. Since it's about catching everyone and not just the Mavs, I'm glad to know that we are keeping pace in improving past those teams. May not happen till the trade deadline or next summer, but at least we didn't saddle ourselves in that race for 3 years.
Dude, we are not better off, that is a ridiculous observation. Parsons is a much better player than Ariza. Lets not kid ourselves or attempt to make others feel better. With that said I was not sold on signing Parsons to the max and in retrospect i think morey did the right thing by letting him walk.
And Asik is a much better player than present-day Okafor, but it doesn't matter when you only need 10-15min/game of them to backup the best Center in the game. Parsons brings a ton to the table, but Ariza addresses a desperate need while still giving A LOT of what Parsons gives.
The problem with last years teams was the pieces didn't fit as well as they could. I really like our roles players now and how they have specific roles to counter the weakness of the team.
Horry, Maxwell, Hakeem, & Ellie could all defend their positions. I can see what Morey is doing. Even after the playoffs against Portland there were signs in his comments that he wasn't emphasizing defense in his moves. He seems to be doing that now.
Yes. But it's going to take Monroe, Okafor or someone too take a below market MLE offer but the market is thinning out.