Also don't like how he gave himself credit for clutch city Steve Patterson built clutch city, hired Rudy t, got horry in the draft, etc I also believe he's completely obsessed with obtaining stars, too obsessed. You are right, can't change les . He should have treated Rick the ruler better too, a true hall of fame coach.
I watched every game last year. Harden doesn't ISO every play man come on now. Ariza is a knock down 3 point shooter every quarter. Ariza will also help hide Hardens defensive troubles. this team lives and dies by their defense and the 3. Ariza is a much better fit than Parsons as it is now. Im a rockets fan.. Not an individual player fan. if the trade is a step forward for the team then im happy. this is a step forward. trust me.
Parsons won't become a "Harden"....nor an Ibaka. Les made this call I believe,and Morey was also leaning in that NO way too much direction. Ariza will spread the court better, and while we lose a ball handler, we gain astrong defensive wing. Answer = Yes they are, but they swing for the fences too much. Parsons would have tied our hands next year. I think durant is coming....
Find a post where I worship Harden. I am good with Harden. This is not about him. Every team needs more than 1 distributor, favorably 3.
Jesus DD, you whine more than a fat 12 year old momma's boy. Don't worry darling, everything's going to be okay. Now lay down, relax, and let momma get you some cookies
That's what I was wondering. I mean I can understand the Dragic thing - huge mistake of course, but I can understand it from a logical standpoint. I can't for the life of me understand the Parsons thing. I mean with capexperts like Bima explaining what we could still do after signing Parsons (use 2 TEs, the MLE, the bi annual, still being 6 million under the tax line) I just don't buy the flexibility thing. With Parsons we'd have 6 rotational pieces for a championship. 1 left, since we usually go with 7 in the playoffs. Without Parsons we are two quality pieces away, with none being available right now. Max capspace for a star? Nope. Arizas contract is in the way. We only have Howard locked up for 2 more seasons. He wants to win. We promised we'd do anything to win. We are not doing that this season. Are we seriously gonna go in the season with 10 million of capspace? Even the best short term contract guys are gone (Pierce, Carter). Noone could blame Dwight for opting out and going elsewhere. I believe this decision was made by Les. He'd been fine with matching if we got Bosh, sure, but he is not ready to spend his own money on something that is not a sure thing. We are wasting the probably short time we have with our 2 stars. And that sucks.
Because you can't get a 3rd best player with Parsons being paid the max, we would be way too strung out on the cap, and with the way the apron works, you have no real way to get much better from then on (look at Miami, being restricted to the mini mle with no bae and full mle, even with the players they had coming in were going backwards, there's just no way to avoid it, it was designed that way, as the players on the mini mle decline faster than they get replaced), the mid level is designed to make tiny incremental increases or maintain status quo, the mini is designed for you to get worse. On top of that, his contract is nigh on untradeable, it's downright awful (look at the awful contract for David Lee, that has no options, no trade kicker, is a better player is a year less and is paid the same money), when Simmons constructs his "worst contracts in the nba", Parsons will be top 5, and might make #1 (Josh Smith, Kobe, Gerald Wallace might beat him, then others like Amare at least are expiring)
There is no doubt that Les has always been cheap. But you donot pay Chandler Freakin Parsons 15 mil a year. That contract is ridiculous.
I truly think they are about winning, but they want a short cut. then again, everyone wants everything now. Lex to maury: " I want my oompa loompas nowwww!!!"
Les, isnt cheap, he was willing to go all in with Bosh or Melo. He wasn't willing to go all in on Parsons. Parsons is not now a superstar and does not make the team $46M better. Could Parsons get better? Maybe. Long shot. He was a second round pick that had a few flashes but mostly inconsistent. He's a gu shot draw, a real long shot. Lin could get better too. Thing is we have a sure thing in Harden and Howard and gambling on young player long shots is not the way to go. They can try to get something proven and/or deepen the bench and hopefully a draft pick or eurostash steps up.
But what options do they have now? It's not like they could say: ok let'S get this guy for the max instead. Not possible since we neither have the capspace nor the outgoing salary. And they can't say: ok, let's get these 2 guys for 8 million each instead. They only have the capspace for one 8 million guy and next season they'd only have the MLE. And there are no FA available that would help us more than Parsons. I would feel a lot better, if someone could show me a scenario in which we end up better. Show me a FA or trade we can do that's a better, realistic option. Because like I said, I for the life of me can't see it. And I can't see it next offseason either. The one after that, sure, if Dwight opts out - but we should try to win with Dwight.
Being "better" doesn't matter if OKC, the LAC and SAS are still better than us, being capped out while being that turns us into Atlanta West or Dallas, and that contract is so bad we'd need to mortgage everything to have any shot at ever actually getting better. Yeah we have about 9m of cap space, which is about what Parsons is really worth anyway.
See this is what I disagree with. We have Howard locked up for 2 more seasons. We need to do everything to get the best team together in that time. Even if OKC, LAC or SAS are still better on paper, we need to do everything to give our 2 stars a shot. We have a short window here. Guys like Beverly will get payed (after the contracts this offseason, don't be surprised when he gets >10 million a year), Howard might opt out. You are talking about Atlanta - I up you one OKC. Don't you think they are scared as hell that Durant and/or Westbrook leave? And why? Because their owner wanted flexiblity or not paying the tax. If you believe in your stars you need to give them the best team. And again: what scenario would make us better? This offseason? Nobody. Trade? We don't have the outgoing salary. Next offseason? No max money. Please, somebody show me some signing or trade that would be worth declining.
There have been several of us who sounded the alarm bell at the fallacy of Morey's "moneyball" approach. We became pariahs for pointing out the golden boy idol had feet of clay. IIRC, GATOR was at the forefront of the disbelievers. Like many of the other disillusioned CFs, maybe he (and they) will return to the board to provide his insights on a regular basis again. Morey is neiter the worst GM in the league ... nor the best. He could be among the elite if he ever learns the value of team play rather than exalting glorified individuals. All he has to do is travel 200 miles to the west and observe what a real organization can accomplish within a team concept.
If Dwight was cool with being the number 3 or 4 team in the conference with no upward mobility, he'd still be in Orlando, that was literally his last 4 years there. And Beverley 10m? a point guard? who can't run an offense? in this league? Which other team do you see being able to use Beverley as a starter? And OKC traded exactly the type of player Morey wants and will pay a max too, it wasn't the trading of Jeff Green that caused their issue.
