[Zach Lowe] Chander Parsons and Houston’s Game of Dominoes

So we decline Parsons' option, making his increased cap hold that much harder on us to sign a max free agent, so that can hopefully force an eastern conference team to SnT for him and give us a relatively crappy late lottery pick in the future?

Why would we do that? Why not just trade him now for a pick instead of declining his option, if that's what we ultimately want? What if he doesn't want to go to to Cleveland or Orlando? What if they don't fall between that 10-14 range for years or ever? And we'll lose his valuable contributions on the court in the meantime. It makes no sense!

 

u really think Ariza will come here for just the MLE and will also want to be a backup to parsons. lol goodluck with that

 

This all sounds great I'm just worried we're flaunting the wink wink stuff a bit too much for the NBA's liking. These guys have to watch out - it's fairly obvious by now that this grand plan will not work without a wink wink deal here and there. People will be watching because other GM's don't want to see another super team and the NBA can't act deaf when they come running.

 

Lowe has been slipping a lot more often lately.

 

The final lineup is good (if TPTB can pull it off), but, backing Harden, a poor defender, with Daniels, another poor defender will not help us much. The Rockets need improved defense to have any chance of winning a championship next season. With that in mind, why is Jodie Meeks on your radar? Statistically, Meeks is one of the worst defenders in the league, with a DefRtg of 110.3 (near the bottom; #203 of the 217 guards in the nba). And, his Defensive Real Plus Minus, DRPM, is -1.94 (#66 of the 90 SGs in the league). Defensively challenged players like Meeks can't really help us do the things we need most. But Hinrich and Sefalosha can because both can defend the wing effectively. Hinrich is an elite defender and Sefalosha is a decent defender (via the same data sources referenced above for Meeks). But I doubt Sefalosha or Hinrich will light it up offensively but we don't need them to. That lineup you posted is loaded with prolific scorers already. If we are serious about contending for a chip next season, we should leave Meeks (and his poor defense) in LA. Other than that, good post. By the way, you can verify the stats here: nba.com (http://stats.nba.com/leaguePlayerGe...Position=G&sortField=DEF_RATING&sortOrder=ASC), and, at espn.com (http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/DRPM/position/2).

 

The one thing i don't get is his comment about the value of our assets, he says there are executives around the league who think they have higher value than he does. How does that even make sense to him? Which is the correct value of an asset? a) what you think, or b) what the consumer (in this case, rival executives) thinks?

 

Don't think Sef is worth the MLE anymore.

 

Get rid of Asik, Lin and DMO and we have no backup pg and no backup center. Also we have a number one player who consistently doesn't show up in the playoffs. I don't care how good the starting lineup is, that is not a championship level team...in the Western Conference it is in fact a first round exit.

Morey however seems to want to go after the big signee...let's hope it works.

 

If that's the case then why does Parsons even bother signing an offer sheet from another team? If he really wants to stay in Houston and we're in agreement over what his salary will be then he'll just sign a contract with us and not even negotiate with another team.

We can offer Parsons any amount up to the max. He doesn't have to sign an offer sheet with another team in order to get paid by the Rockets.

 

Let's say we do dump Asik & Lin, and Melo signs on for cheap, and we then sign Parson back.

A starting lineup of Bev-Harden-Parsons-Melo-Howard and a bench filled with promising young specialists like Daniels & vets signed on for cheap (ex. Okafor for example). And God willing we can get someone like Lionel Hollins to be our associate head coach.

Could this team compete with Miami?

 

The current year team could have competed with Miami.

Despite going out in the first round, the team is on the right track.

 

If the Heat can form a big 3 off wink wink, I think wink winking for Parsons isn't that huge of a deal.

NBA won't interfere unless it's really obvious. AK47 took some 20 mill/3 years less to sign with the Nets because possible Russian under the table money, that one was way more fishy than this.