If it were me, I would play both 34 minutes a night. I think with casspi,brewer,and garcia,they have solid not great depth. When I take parsons out of casspi, I would play garcia if beverly is at the pg. If lin was pg and I took harden out, I would play brewer. Like someone else said, parson has turned into a avg defender. I also think their philosophy on pnr and rotations are bad.
sadly, I think Harden/Parsons is going to breakup this offseason, this series is proof that the bad defense cannot be overcome even in a series against a less talented team.
I'm not sure they'll break-up, but I think it might be for the best. I like the premise of this thread. I wonder what impact, if any, a coaching change could have. It's hard to believe that there aren't more coaches out there capable of teaching both ends of the floor... I'm so tired of the only one side of the floor coach. But that said, man are the Rockets perimeter defenders and wings unable to stop dribble-drives. How many times did Batum get open looks at layups? Some on simple drive-by's of Parsons? Not sure who you would replace Parsons with. I love Tony Allen... he's not really a 3 and D player since he has no 3, but his defense is so good. In any case, packaging Parsons with perhaps Asik this offseason to get something meaningful in return is looking more and more likely.
maybe if this was year 1 or 2 parsons, not "im going to inflate my offensive stats for a big contract" parsons.
Those guys are future hall of famers though...how about we pick someone who is more closer to Parson's level lol
No more like Cuban made the choice for him. If it went down the way Morey wanted it to we would have Bosh and Parsons.
Well, that's mostly because we wanted Bosh, not because we were dead-set on Parsons as our championship squad SF. It's just that if we got Bosh, we wouldn't be able to get anyone but Parsons.
What is done is done. Morey made some serious miscalculations in the off season, but it looks like he may have recovered nicely with the signings of Ariza, Papa and Terry.
I think calling it luck is tired. Look at his track record he sure gets "lucky" a lot. I don't get why it's so hard to give the man credit. He's built a contending team without tanking. Dude traded Kevin Martin for Harden! Say that really slow.. Kevin martin for James Harden!!
Truly prescient, trugoy. Your analysis has been borne out by our hot start. I would say Morey wanted to keep Parsons but if he could upgrade, he would. The fact that they were able to sign Ariza up within a short period means they've been keeping tabs on him. Studied his 3pt stats since his rookie year and saw he has been increasing it every year. So preparation and the superiority of our player assessment methods kept Morey from panicking at Parson's offer sheet. Ariza must have had a generally positive experience here his 1st go-around he agreed to sign right away.
Lucky? Morey did his homework on Harden, not to mention Ariza (the second time around, can't make lemonade out of oranges) and also Howard. It's not like Harden's transcendence into a top 5-10 offensive player was completely based on Morey's luck. Harden still had to play and develop like any other player would. Looking back I'm glad things worked out the way they did. It would have been interesting if Parsons had resigned for 8-10 million yearly for a few years. Things happen for a reason and fortunately our team now has 3 good/great defensive players, so Jones and Harden are forced to play better defense!
kevin..martin..for..james..hard..en..w..t..f..that..is..for..real..yall..could..still..be..sleeping..though
I think Ariza is in his prime while Parsons is not. Having said that, Ariza is a far better fit for this team for the next 2 years and a tremendous compliment to Harden/Howard. It's extremely clear that Harden is never going to be able to expend much energy on defense given how much effort it takes to go to the line 10 times a game and dish out 5 assists per game. The SF on this team is always going to have to defend the best SG/SF's in the league, and Ariza is far more capable of that than Parsons IMO. While Parsons is probably a better overall offensive player, I think Ariza is better on D by at least the same margin. That works for us. More importantly, Ariza tailors his game to the presence of two star players beautifully on the side of the ball where he is weaker. Parsons did not seem willing to do that (or may he just wasn't capable). He did not commit his time and his attention and his summer to becoming the perfect compliment for a star duo. Instead he decided he wants to be a star, and I don't blame him for that part of his decision. As Dirk fades away, there is no money and no challenge to him and Monta taking that team over. This is all fantastic for us. More importantly, Parsons will make $14m per season while Ariza makes $9m on a declining scale for 3 years while the cap goes up. We really struck gold here. The Harden/Ariza team fits just perfectly. Dominant offense and excellent defense. With Beverley able to guard smaller players and Ariza bigger wing men, Harden's defensive weakness is covered. As if that's not good enough, Harden is now putting in some real effort on defense. When you are a leader and your PG, SF and C are playing elite defense, you have to pick up your game so you don't lose your voice in the locker room. Great outcome for our SF position. Now we need to shore up the bench with some vets. I don't think we need a 3rd star the way we're structured.
Parsons may still be reaching his prime, but Cuban is already paying for a prime Parsons. Karma is a b****, Cuban. He wants to steal Morey's secrets he hired away Gersson Rosas only to fire him before the season was even halfway through What happened? He wouldn't give away Rockets trade secrets?
