Sounds like the Atlanta Hawks after they gave Joe Johnson a max deal and Memphis giving Rudy gay the Max. Sometimes changes need to be made if you are at risk of keeping a first round losing team together by giving a glue guy a max contract.
Frankly, I think Les spends plenty of money on this team. I'm glad Parsons is gone. He prioritizes money too much, and he's earned the right to make that decision. The right players for this team are the ones who want to be here. You can either be with Houston or you can be with Dallas for $15m. You can't have both. Ariza at $8m will give us more than 90% of what Parsons gave us for $6m less. We were never going to get our Mario Elie with our money tied up like that, and Parsons is anything but out Mario Elie. He got greedy and decided to focus on offense because he's aware teams pay more for offense than defense. We needed defense from him. The writing was sort of on the wall: from the beginning of last season up until he signed with Dallas, Parsons cared about making more money disproportionately. We can still get major upgrade at 2 positions, and lose little at the 3. I'm fine with that. I don't think Parsons is what kills us, and I don't think he's what makes us that top seed. I think, next to Harden, we are always going to need an excellent defender and Parsons wanted to be Dirk Nowitzki rather than Kawhi Leonard. Now we have the flexibility to come out of the summer with a significantly improved team. We can acquire Illyasova, sign Okafor and DJ Augusting (for example). Is that really not a much improved team over last season? Of course it is. We could have that with Parsons for a year, but then we'd be stuck with him unless we wanted to get rid of more assets to trade him next summer.
I agree that that team needed to grow but getting Bosh and getting that chance to get would look silly if they try. If they kept Parsons we would not be better, and Parsons who was great is not worth 15 million per year. He is a terrible defensive player and he was inconsistent offensively.
Of all the arguments against the rockets this is by far the most ridiculous. They were willing to go into luxury tax territory to sign bosh and match parsons. End of the cheap argument isn't it? Am I missing something here? I'm shocked that they aren't matching Parsons but where on earth are people getting the idea that this is money related, as in Les being cheap?
Congratulations your post had absolutely nothing to do with what I was talking about. I'm saying blame moreys plan not les.
Anyone that don't think we are in a win now situation is crazy. Rockets should be making moves to get better, not for cap space in the hopes of getting a third star. I understand the Bosh thing hurt us, but we still should be all in to win. Make a run for two years, then retool. Trying to retool by giving away 3 of your top players and only adding cap space and one player is stupid, imo. Especially in a win now mode.
Exactly and Parson's contract was only for 3 years - hardly hampering. The last time we had Ariza Morey couldn't get rid of him fast enough - to avoid the last 4 years of his deal, then brings him back for MORE $$$ Yuck. Thank god Rudy didn't think this way - sometimes you need to give players time together. DD
I guess you are going to forget about the circumstances surrounding Ariza's first stint with the rockets..
It's not just that you're wrong at times. You are usually always wrong about things like this. Even in your own thread. The whole premise is wrong. The decision made today was exactly about talent over money. The idea that the rockets are winning a championship with Parsons as their 3rd guy is dumb. Don't believe me? Then I guess you didn't watch the playoffs where Parsons was consistently MIA in 4th quarters. This is about talent. And how to get the most if it... While maximizing the salary cap. Again you're approaches are just awful. They range from get excited and wait for players the clearly will never develop (Langhi et all) to pay everyone the max because "they're 25". If you think Parsons is a too 5 SF in this league and deserving of the max you have t been paying attention to the NBA. DM went as far to decide that not only isn't he worth the max, he probably is t even traceable if we match. So what? You are in love with the Nets approach? Or the Knicks? Hahaha. Yeah, DM should just match because why not, it would prove to DD that Les isn't cheap. Stop. Just stop. It's embarrassing. There are PLENTY of things to be upset with DM and the organization about. Not matching Parsons isn't one. As for whether they'll be better this year than last? I think they will. I think they make the 2nd round... And that's better. Would they have been even better if they matched? Clearly. More good players is a good thing. But that's not the point. The point is how much better and at what cost? Well at the cost of ever getting a "real" third star, that's what, and actually having a shot to win a championship.
Sorry, I know I quoted you but really just the first sentence was in reference to your post. The rest of my post was just ranting. I think we are wasting our time trying to be "flexible" when superstars just aren't interested in signing here for some reason.
That's a really narrow way of thinking. Unfortunately there are a lot more variables at play than you want to discuss with your one liners.
I think Dallas will score a lot of points but they are going to be horrible on defense. He chased the money and signed on the dotted line. He need to sign role players. I say go get Greg Monroe. Jameer Nelson and trade for K Love.
Why do you need 3 stars to be a contender? Other contenders like LAC do with 2. Dallas won a title with one star that didn't even play defense - against the vaunted big 3, no less. Miami was a 3-star team but that's gone now. Spurs sort of are, but they are really about coaching and system. Who else is a 3-star team? Maybe OKC, but that's about it. Why is it not possible to build a contender around two of the best players at their positions and a bunch of good role players? The odds of getting 3 superstar players in their prime is really low. If that's your only formula for success, you probably should just plan to fail.
One... With Parsons, we improve slightly, but we don't have much room for improvement. If you really think Parsons is THAT much better than Ariza you should reevaluate your basketball mind. Yes we're all upset at how the offseason is going, but Parsons being paid more than James Harden is ridiculous.
