People also aren't factoring in how versatile this team can be defensively on the perimeter. I can invision lineups with Parsons/Ariza/Bev/D-Mo/Dwight. That's a lineup you can run with when Harden is on the bench that should dominate defensively and can still operate through Dwight offensives with shooters surrounding him.
You're assuming that Chandler eating up $15M a year with a 15% trade kicker (and player option after 2 yrs) is still an "asset". Dude will be making more than James Harden. At <$1M, guy was a steal. At $15M with hard to move provisions attached? I am not as confident that that is as movable of an asset... I still think Morey was dumb to decline the option. I Really Really don't see how the benefits of that risk would have outweighed the chances of the cons happening (which did come to fruition).
Will matching Parsons allow us to be players for Kevin Durant free agency? That would be a sick core....
I agree with most of what the OP said, bringing in Ariza is great if he's used in the Delfino/Garcia/Casspi role and he would allow Parsons to lower his minutes to the low to mid 30's instead of the high 30's. Only 6 players in the entire NBA averaged more minutes than Parsons last year and I think he'd play a lot better if he could bring that number down a bit.
Why would the rockets let go of parsons. He put up numbers that only 7 players in the nba could do when looking at points, assists, and boards, including lebron and Durant. Why would Morey let that kind of player walk(whose not even in his prime yet) for a player like ariza who is 30 years old and leaving his prime Parsons is probably the 4th best SF behind Durant, lebron, and paul George and you expect a team chasing rings to let that go?
Not really. It happens. Cp was a bit of a traitor. Dm could have made him wait to get paid another year. It was a gamble. The decision now should not be emotional, just business. Does cp make us better or is it better to have 10m or so cap flexibility down the road. I'm getting tired of the cpofs. Go rockets. Bitter and sarcastic? Hell yes.
I think is moronic to overpay for Parsons and stay with two small forwards with that load of money. The Rockets should move on and let the Mavericks be stupid for giving Parsons that money. The Rockets need to get Goran Dragic or Eric Bledsoe, they're basically a better team with one of those two.
So instead we should upgrade a division rival while downgrading at the position just to save some money? Heh, I'm glad you aren't in our FO
Also consider this, Cuban is sticking it to us if we match. We will not be a factor in free agency the next three years which is a big win for him. He's still sore we got Dwight. Let Cuban eat the sheety contract. Cp has too much Johnny manzeil in him. He will party down once he gets this money and not get better. He peaked in time to cash in and will now regress. Consider that as a possible outcome.
I don't see why people hate on chandler for signing the sheet. The man has been the 3rd star for 3 years and didn't even make 3 million. I would have taken the 46 million if I was him to. Morey wanted the market to set he's value and now Morey has to eat that bullet. Let's not forget that harden left okc for the money and to become a star just like chandler decided to. Now look at the thunder, they were scared to go into the luxury tax and lost harden and haven't been back to the finals since. Everyone makes fun of the thunder screwing up with harden the same way we will screw up with parsons if we don't match
But the salary cap is expected to jump to around $80M following the 2016 season. So most figure Parsons will opt out after that second year. Even if he doesn't, his salary is not going to be as constrictive as it seems now. The Rockets are really operating in a two year window.
I agree - but he is in the discussion to be top 5 and he is 25 years old - and he is easily attainable. It's not like we could just say: alright, let's take Batum instead of Parsons. We probably can't say: allright, let's take Deng at 10 million either. Not matching him makes us worth and leaves us with something around 10 million in capspace. Matching his contract would mean we have 6 rotational players in place and probably still have the MLE and TEs and the bi annual exception to work with. And his contract is 3 years. We know we can use him this year and we know, we can't spend the money any better this year. Chances are his contract is at aleast alright next season and it might very well be, that we couldn't spend his money better than as well. After that he has a player option, might opt out. If not he is a huge expiring player that can play and might only be slightly overpayed. We've got a nice first rounder out of Asik and he was only a 8.4 million expiring contract that costs the owner 15 million. Let's not pretend his contract will be poisenous.
With McHale it's all about a tight rotation. Like 9-man rotation that sometimes squeezes down to 8-man. So with 8 man, we need a good PG/combo guard, a forward who can guard and play the 2 thru 4 (attained thru Ariza), and a big who is a legitimate C but can also slide down the the 4. We keep Parsons. Then Ariza becomes that wing / forward on the bench who can guard big SGs, small ball PFs, and of course SFs. Ariza & Parsons can both play stretch PF small ball. Last 2 years we saw lots of Delfino, Casspi, & Parsons at the Stretch 4. Ariza is such a HUGE upgrade to Casspi, Delfino, Hamilton, & Garcia as that versatile bench SF. Huge. That's why we match Parsons. Cause then it is a big step forward. Also now Parsons can play harder in 33 mpg instead of being overused again with so many 40+ minute nights. Now we need to upgrade the Lin hole with that good back up PG / combo guard. Canaan & Nick Johnson & Troy Daniels are too green & small. But I hope I'm proven wrong. Morey was really up on Canaan when we shipped out Brooks. I hope one or all of those guys prove to be breakout secret weapons this year. But I think we still need to nab a solid back up so we don't have the weakest PG rotation in the league. Back up C. If D-Mo continues to stagnate and play like he did last night, then he's the weakest link in our big man rotation. We need someone better than him to back up Howard and TJ.
