Your 2013 Rockets starting PF: Chandler Parsons

I will be very surprised if this happens. Same with Beverley being the starting PG.

 

Yikes OP, do you even watch Rockets basketball? Patterson and Morris both had an interior style of play, while Parsons strength is on the perimeter.

 

The reason they did that was because they didn't want Parsons getting in foul trouble. Garcia is a tenacious defender, but not really a good defender. When you are guarding a soft player like Durant, tenacity can matter more than skill if you can push them around and get in their head. You pick up a ton of fouls doing that though especially guarding one of the NBA's golden boys.

Make no mistake, Parsons is a hell of a lot better defensively than Garcia.

 

Just because he is 6 foot9 does not mean he can play 4

 

I don't remember Parsons guarding Paul. I really don't remember Parsons guarding Paul when Lin was on the court. I really really don't remember Parsons guarding Paul when Beverley was in the game. When Lin was pulled from games to put a better perimeter defender on the opposing PG, how often was the guy LOFs complained about Parsons? It would have been so easy for the Rockets to keep their best offensive PG in the game if Parsons was good enough defensively to guard good opposing PGs. I must have missed all the Parsons vs. Lin debates. *

With all the data McHale had from the season and early in the playoffs, who did McHale choose to guard Durant when Garcia and Parsons were on the court together most often? It rhymes with Zarcia.

If you want to argue Lin vs. Parsons, I will say that is debatable.

*caveat, not counting switches.

 

Just because you have other playmaking guards doesn't mean that you immediately throw the other playmaker(the one who can create the biggest mismatches with his size) in the corner or in the post(where he isn't yet affective).

Its Chandler's natural feel for the game to be on the perimeter facilitating, and working with screens. Its not always the quickest, or the most pretty looking playmaking, but its very affective. I went back and watched a game the other day (because I'm DIEING right now without B-Ball), and remembered how good of a facilitator he is when he needs to be.

With the success he had last year, you dont want to screw him up mentally by playing him not just out of postition, but playing him in the spots on the floor that he's not comfortable in. Garcia, & Casspi are natural catch and shoot players who would be better suited working off the ball as the stretch 4 man.

 

I just explained to you why that was, you should know better now.

 

If Parsons is playing the 4, I think McHale would use the 2, the 3, and the 4 interchangeably. Sometimes Parsons is in the corner for catch and shoot, sometimes he isn't. It will make defensive rotations more difficult as players are always in different positions. I want Parsons at the 4 so he can force the opposing 4 to try to guard his playmaking.

 

If the best option for the team is to start Parsons at the 4, then a major trade is needed before the season. We give up too much of Parson's skills at the 3 doing that.

If the TJones, DMo, Asik combo can not handle the 4 spot, I'd be very surprised and very much in favor of a trade for a quality 4, rather than put Chandler in a position that would potentially cost the team his perimeter skills. Nope, if what we have can't cut it, then trade for someone who can.

 

So, your argument is that Parsons never guarded elite point guards because, if he had, there would have been Lin vs. Parsons debates? Jesus Christ man.

Just forget it. Agree to disagree, whatever...but I think you may be misremembering how some of the games played out throughout the season.

 

That's fine. Im very pro interchangeability, and think that's going to be sort of be the future of the NBA, but that's a topic for another day.

I'm just wanting people to know that if you are all for Parsons making the switch to strickly a PF in the traditional sense, or in this offense as its currently constituted, your going to be taking your 3rd best play-making perimeter player out of the position on the court that he's had major success in for his entire career- high school, college, and the pros.

Having another Forward that he can switch off with to mix up the defense with is an incredible weapon offensively though. That's why I think a player like Danny Granger has been pursued so much by the Rockets. I think they really think he can be deadly playing next to Chandler. Batum would be another player that could be deadly playing next to Parsons.

Anyways.. I'll go dream about it over in the Trade-Machine random trade thread.

 

Did not see your post. It is an explanation. I don't agree with it as a non-tenacious defender (is that an oxymoron?) doesn't pick up fouls. Parsons averages about 2.5 fouls a game when he is primarily on Durant. Parsons is a tenacious defender when he wants to be. I still have him behind those 3 guys.

In Parsons 6th game as an NBA player, Durant was able to draw 4 fouls on Parsons of which 2 of them were superstar calls against an unknown rookie if my memory serves me correctly. Durant has not been able to get Parsons of any kind of foul trouble except maybe game 3 (don't remember how many fouls Parsons picked up while guarding Durant in God Mode) of the series after Garcia was assigned as Durant's personal defender. If fouls are the reason, it is a bad reason.

Parsons was not this great defender when he is playing all out in an uptempo offense. If the Rockets slow down, maybe Parsons improves to being better than Garcia, but based on last year, Parsons was not better than Garcia at defending perimeter. You can say it is because Parsons exerted more energy on offense and that may be true. All I know is that Garcia defended better than Parsons last year.

 

Lineups change depending on the team they are playing. He will play 3 or 4 depending on the matchups.

 

I think you are letting his performance on Durant in one series blind you. Last year Parsons had 2.1 defensive win shares, Garcia had .7 for the year combined. It's fine that you let that happen to you, it's very common for people to make judgements on what they last saw and forget the entire season and the entire career of players, but it doesn't make it right. Asik and Parsons were by far the best defenders on the team last year, but Beverley and Garcia certainly played energetic, tenacious defense in the playoff series. Does that mean that they were better defenders? Of course not, but I understand how you could make that mistake. Fortunately, the guys running the team won't make that mistake.

 

No, I am refuting your statement, "Parsons consistently was put on the best perimeter offensive player all year, that can't be said for any of the other players you mentioned."

I do not agree to disagree. Beverley was easily brought in to guard the best perimeter offensive player when that player was a PG. There is plenty of evidence of this based on the number of Lin v Beverley debates.

There is also plenty of evidence that Garcia was consistently put on Durant in the playoffs. If there was ever a time for a coach to sacrifice offense for defense, playing against OKC without Westbrook was the time.

I could be wrong about Lin being a better defender than Parsons (I think they are close in skill actually). I could be wrong about being Garcia and Beverley being better defenders than Parsons. I am not wrong about Parsons not consistently guarding the best perimeter offensive player because he was not consistently on Durant or Westbrook in the playoffs. It would be very easy to slide Lin or Beverley over to Thabo while Harden guarded Perkins.

 

Bravo post

 

Parsons played nearly ten times as many minutes as Garcia did in Houston.
Garcia had 0.3 defensive win shares in 319 minutes in Houston for 0.00094 DWS/min. Parsons had 0.000761 DWS per minute. Garcia had a much better defensive RAPM than Parson last year which is a much better defensive indicator than DWS.

I don't think McHale forgot all of last season when he put Garcia on Durant.

 

LOL, no, like I said, he didn't want Parsons to get into foul trouble because if you were paying any attention to the playoff series at all the refs were blowing the whistle every time anyone looked in the direction of Durant. Parsons is a MUCH more valuable player than Garcia, so they put Garcia on Durant because if he fouls out, no one really cares.

By playing a combination of Delfino, Garcia, and Parsons on Durant they were able to keep Parsons out of foul trouble in all but one game.

 

I don't think Parsons will be the starting PF but CLEARLY he will get minutes there and probably "crunch time" minutes. Casspi will see minutes there too.

My prediction (baring any trades) is that Terrence Jones will be the starting PF.