he'll thicken naturally with time, as do we all. But he has a narrow frame that will not take gracefully to new slabs of muscle, and he'll end up giving up two of his greatest physical attributes if he tries bodybuilding- his speed and explosiveness. Instead, I have a short list of to-dos for the young fella: 1. work on your help defense and focus on boxing out- with rare exceptions, every NBA player's weakness from the 80s onward 2. Work on your shooting form- why must every jumper be a fadeaway?
His defense was fine last night, and I can't believe people still blame him for that last second shot Monta Ellis had. The game was tied. If the opposition's only shot is a 360 fadeaway 4 feet behind the arc, YOU PLAYED GOOD DEFENSE. Honestly, any player can take that shot whenever they want with absolutely no risk of having it blocked. You want to contest it? Fine, but have fun getting blamed if they call a foul.
This is the old chicken or egg situation. Chandler Parsons 2013 is the same guy as 2012. The difference is that he is still adapting to a larger role in the offense AND the team defense is just horrible, there is no other way to state it, it is just disgusting. When you have poor communication, inconsistent rotating and a lack of discipline, you will have break downs and it will be hard to evaluate how good or bad an individual player in on defense. I don't entirely blame the players or coaches. The pace is absurd, the players were all basically thrown together right before the season started. Lin, Harden and Asik all were from very different systems to what they are playing now. The other half of the roster is all rookies (D-Mo, TRob, TJones, Beverley). Last, the power forward position was completely gutted. So it is no surprise that the team defense is terrible. When you watch Parsons, Harden, Lin or Delfino and think they are being torched, just remember it isnt that simple. Further, when you see the player one of the Rockets is matched up is not scoring, do not assume good defense is being played. In some cases what appears to be good defense is really a player not rotating or gambling. An example is John Stockton, he was a poor individual defender but a very good team defender. Put him on this Rockets team and he would get lit up.
IMO, he does need to bulk up a little more, or get stronger, but I think that will come with age. Younger guys go into the NBA a lot weaker than when they are in their mid to late 20’s, but I will guess that speed decreases. Parsons is assigned to guard the opposing teams’ top players, e.g., Durant, Melo, LBJ, it just seems to me that bulking up, which is in essence becoming stronger, will open more of his offense by starting from better defensive pressure, leading to other aspects. But yea, some posters have been eating knee-jerky.
Agreed. There needs to be better specificity when people talking about weak or strong defense. Rockets is a team with subpar team defense for all the reasons listed. Which is why there should be more in-depth responses when speaking about an individual's lack of defense, it can be really damning. But in the case of Harden's defense.... I don't think we can be that forgiving; although, the argument can be made that since he takes up so much energy on offense, his defensive efforts are likely to decline.
Harden's defense will drastically improve with good team defense, in part because with good team defense, individual effort is not as important. As it is, Harden is gassed in part because of his huge responsibilities on the offensive end. Harden needs to make defense a priority in the off season.
I have no problem with what Chandler has done this year. He's needed to be our 2nd leading scorer. More focus on the offensive end will naturally cause some slack in defense. Ideally, we get our 2nd super star this summer or next summer (preferably LA or Love) and Chandler becomes our glue guy. He shouldn't have to be needed for more than 12-15 points a game. Run the court, knock down threes, and cut to the basket after playing lock-down defense.
Chandler's not a dummy. He knows that unless he's a lockdown defender a la Battier, how he produces offensively is going to be what gets him the big contract.
