Is Chandler Parsons now the worst defender on the team?

Horry said that's what this team is lacking to be up there with the top notch teams... a wing defender. The thing about CP and Garcia is they defend with their length and positioning, but with guys like KD and Lebron, you gotta go Bev on them. Neither has that quickness and physical nature.

 

No, you can't fault Parsons in this game. KD is unstoppable sometimes. and this was one of those times

 

KD does that every night on everyone

 

You can't judge his defense based on playing KD...he's like a 2K character..

 

KD was great tonight. It's more about him just making shots than bad D by anyone. He hit some highly contested off the dribble Js.

In the past few games, the Rockets did a pretty good job on opposing wings like Paul George, Batum and even Lebron James.

Sure, we can always use an extra elite defender, but let's not blow it out of proportion based on one game.

 

So Harden is now a better defender than Parsons because he's finally giving effort??
I'm more concerned with Chandler's jumpshot.

 

I feel you have some valid points, Parsons is too slow to check elite perimeter scorers in this league at this point and he has poor awareness as well because Butler got free for some big shots on Parsons as well when Garcia was on Durant. A lot of the Rox poor perimeter D comes from poor defensive awareness and ball watching too much. Parsons main value to the team is his offense at this point but he needs to play smarter on the defensive end.

 

Rookie Parsons also didn't have to play 40+ minutes every game.

 

KD's great, and it's not a knock on Parsons that he got outplayed by the best scorer in the game. But you can see the difference Garcia made when he got the assignment. I don't think Parsons is a bad defender, but if the Rockets fancy themselves contenders, they're going to be facing OKC in the playoffs for the next 3-4 seasons and they're going to need an answer.

 

He needs to start playing defense like he did his rookie season,that's how he got to the position he is today. He took Budinger spot by playing hard nose defense every night.

 

Is Trugoy the worst poster on this forum? Posts nothing but ****e, in my option.

Answer is 'no', by the way. Jones is probably our biggest liability. He gets abused by any half decent power forward. He'll improve, but he's the reason Parsons and Harden are having to guard power forwards.

 

How did Memphis beat OKC in the playoffs? I don't remember them doubling KD, but maybe I wasn't paying attention. When you double, it means another guy is wide open. The best scenario is someone who can defend him in single coverage who can sort of slow him down.

Its definitely not a shame to be burned by KD. However, Parsons consistently gets demolished and lets him score well above even his season averages. We had to freakin put Garcia on him in the playoffs to slow him down. Parsons needs to do a better job...Period.

 

Can you guys relax... It's Kevin Durant.

 

Parsons not using the glass and missing at least 4 floaters which are usually a gimme for him, that was as much a factor to his defense on KD.

 

You guys keep mentioning KD but do you realize you're this is Parsons defense regardless of whom? Thus is an ongoing thing, not just today.

 

Parsons had a stretch of great D out there today. I remember two plays in general where he bodied up Durant on the elbow, forced him out of the middle and made him take a tough floater that banked out. For all the flack Parsons is getting in this thread, I really think he does a decent job on team D. However the main problem is systematic.

I do not for the life of me understand what our coaching system is. We're consistently one pass away helping. Lin is the biggest offender of this rule. Anytime there is penetration and he is a pass away he digs and tries to help, which results in an easy kick out and buried 3. Also more egregious, especially in the game tonight, was how often we are helping out of the corners. OKC hit a lot of corner shots today which is not something moneyball wants to give up.

On top of that Beverly will play way too aggressive switch everything and not communicate it out. Causing Parsons or Harden to leave Beverly's guy open. Harden will lose focus when he is weakside helping and not close out when he sees the pass skipping to his man. Both starting bigs are always going for blocks. One should go for the block the other needs to box out and clean up the board (why we give up so many o rebs). These are systematic problems that need to be addressed. OKC got a ton of corner 3's and their spacing was much better today than ours. These issues need to be corrected by the coaches before the players get hung out to dry.

 

Chandler is way overplayed this season. I think it is not good in the long run for either the team or Chandler himself. And it is not necessary.
An obvious change this season is Chandler is doing a lot more play making. When Harden is out, Lin in with Chandler, he is the main play maker, not Lin... To be fair, he improved a lot in this area, but his play making ability is not as good as lin. At times, I feel they are wasting Lin's play making ability, kinda marginalizing Lin's role in this team. It might be good for Chandler because players usually get paid by their offense numbers. But he could be worn down at playoff time, which will affect this team and his own value in the market.