Rockets will NOT match the Chandler Parsons offer sheet

I can see harden and dwight bouncing to okc together to join Durant

I could even see them bouncing to Dallas in a couple years to piss off Morey like he just did to them

I would pay anything to see the tension between harden howard and Morey in a room right now

 

In the end Cuban is going to have to live for 3 years with that sick Parsons contract and CPs going to feel the heat when he has a bad game now that he's a max player. Morey shouldnt have let him out of the last year of his contract but he made the right decision in not matching that insanely outrageous poison pill Cuban threw at him. Lesson learned.

 

Well I don't care which one is strictly worse or better, but all I know is that if these two offseason moves are even beginning to be compared to each other then this move is a major catastrophe!!! Which it is!!!!!!

 

Fixed

 

Morey's mistake--dare I say this?

He fell in love with Parsons' game and stopped thinking of him as an asset. He could have traded him for Rondo or Love but didn't.

He could have taken the option and if Parsons wasn't biting on a medium contract, trade him by the trade deadline next year. Fans would just have been as mad at him as they are now.

Yeah, Morey made a mistake but I doubt he does it again. Never stop thinking of your players as assets to the championship dream!

 

We could have had him for that for one more season in which we wouldn't contend anyway, and then he would have pulled the same crap next season.

If his price is the Max, then he's not worth it to us, because Parsons at the Max doesn't get us over the hump. We have to look elsewhere to get over that hump, that is essentially what Morey is doing with this move.

We have lots of options now, and while Ariza isn't as talented he's not that far off - for half the price. Asik and Lin were leaving anyway.

You guys are bitshing about not being able to go into next season with EXACTLY the same team that got ejected from the first round last season. Do you not understand that the result next season likely wouldn't have been that far off? OK, maybe chemistry gets us a second round exit next season... We need a major move. The team as constructed is simply not good enough to win a championship. Now we have the flexibility and space to change that.

 

You can really see two superstars moving to Oklahoma? Really?

I don't think anyone has willingly moved to Oklahoma. Ever.

 

Everyone needs to step away from the ledge. Parsons is a good role player in our free flowing system. That doesn't mean he will flourish in Dallas' offense with structure and no Harden or Howard. I have no doubt Ariza will fill his shoes well enough with a little better 3pt touch and tighter defense.

Declining Parsons keeps us in the running to possibly sign Love/Aldridge next year. We could also still give Bledsoe an offer sheet or look into the Rondo trade. Being strapped by an average player is the last thing you want to do in building a championship team.

 

Personally, I'm indifferent to letting Parsons walk. I could see it justified both ways.

However, in terms of NOT matching, there are reasons why it makes sense. Setting aside the grotesque amount of money, the 3rd year player option, and trade kicker (making it VERY difficult to trade), from a roster construction point of view it does make sense.

Let's set a few basic assumptions...

-Asik was gone no matter what. He wanted out last year, he wants out this year, and if we didn't trade him he would just get mysteriously injured or mail it in for his last season. He got back on board last season, but only after Morey made clear that he'd made good faith efforts to trade him.

So, any arguments in terms of us getting "worse" should NOT include Asik as he was gone regardless.

-Lin is gone because Bosh screwed us. The way FA works, is that you can't have a signed offer until you have the actual cap space. If Bosh says he's coming, then you have to take him at his word. However, there's nothing in the CBA that prevents him from changing his mind and completely screwing you over even after you've given up players and picks to clear the decks. You can bet that Morey wasn't moving Lin unless he was 99% sure that Bosh was coming.

Lin is gone because he had to be gone in order to facilitate a Bosh signing. Morey made the correct steps in working to clear cap space as he was operating under the assumption that Bosh was coming to Houston. Let us also not forget that Parsons was on a time deadline. Morey didn't have the luxury of screwing around in terms of moving Lin and other players if he wanted to match Parsons if Bosh was coming.

Now, as for Parsons he's a good player. And at minimum salary he was a fantastic bargain. At $15M he's overpaid. At $15M with a 3rd year option AND a trade kicker, he's a terrible contract. However, if you have Bosh you have to eat that contract.

However, we don't have Bosh, so why didn't Morey match Parsons?

While Parsons himself isn't easily replaceable, a portion of his production IS easily replaceable. Ariza isn't as good as Parsons offensively, but he IS far better defensively. And he plays the same position as Parsons. Keeping both would have created an unnecessary duplication of skills and inefficient use of team salary.

So, instead of matching Parsons for $15M, you give Ariza $8M and use the resulting salary difference to sign a solid back up PG, or back up C, or starting PG and move Beverley to the 2nd unit, or a solid power forward, or any combination of the above.

As long as the Sum of the parts is greater or equal to what we would have had with Parsons and Lin (remember, Asik is gone anyway) then we did okay. It was always unlikely that we were going to find a significant back up C... there's just not a lot of those guys flying around.

The problem with matching Parsons is that it makes it incredibly hard to upgrade the power forward spot, or to add a decent back up Center/swing 4, or to add a decent back up PG down the line.

Right now it looks bleak, but FA is far from over. We'll see what Morey does in terms of picking up support pieces. If he gets some nice scoring depth on the bench (our weakness last season) and suitable players to cover at the back up PG and C, then it's still possible for this team to be as good or better than last year.

While that's hard to conceive, let's remember that our bench last year was heavily dependent on guys like Garcia, Dmo and Casspi... IE, they weren't exactly lighting up the scoreboard consistently.

So, let's see how this plays out.

Even if we end up with a step back this year, the nature of FA is that there are no guarantees. There are 29 other teams that want to land the best players, if you get more than your fair share you're doing pretty well.

Finally, if all else fails take some comfort in that Dallas has a terrible contract on their books tying up their cap space going forward. If anything goes even slightly wrong in Dallas, they have NO room for error.

 

This is really disappointing. I know 46M for Parsons is big money but I still wish Rockets matched and it sucks he's going to the MAVS... Parsons is dead to me now.

 

You don't understand. This move wasn't about saving money. With the Parsons max contract + trade kicker, there was 0 chance in hell we were getting anyone else for the next 3 years as it requires moving the immovable Parsons contract. This would be the championship-contending squad we will be stuck with. Morey concluded, rightly or wrongly, that this wouldn't have won the championship.

By declining to match, we have space for a max contract as long as we sign short term deals with our remaining capspace (that roll off in a year) and are able to trade a very reasonable Ariza contract.

Sure, you might say we would just strike out again and waste the prime Dwight years. That's possible, and even very likely, but I would rather have a 25% chance to land a third star and win a championship than 100% chance of being stuck in the second round at best.

 

Ummm, I am not working based on hindsight? You don't have to twist and screw my arguments around to fit your weak-ass premediated propositions?

Look, I do not care if we paid him 900k or 15m this season. I mean I would MUCH rather prefer to pay this guy 900k, but if he comes at a 15M price tag? So be it. We have assembled one of the best teams in Rockets history and were already a title contender last season if not for miraculous performances by a much inferior team. We blew them on in the regular season. BLEW OUT.

Why couldn't we have signed him as an UFA? I really don't get this. Surely Parsons will come back and say, "hey, this team signed for this amount, will you match?". Couldn't Morey have signed him then? Was Parsons so angry with this team that we HAD to make him restricted just to force him to stay?

Either way, it doesn't matter. 900k or 15m, you pay this guy. He is young, talented, a leader of the team, and has just been selected to Team USA. Gordon Hayward was matched and Utah is nowhere the team we are and will be.

This is just one crazy move.

Your infantile, moronic arguments don't even begin to touch on the main point I was trying to make.

 

The worst part of all this is that I honestly don't see us playing the fast-paced, run 'n gun tempo anymore. I think Parsons played a key role in that (one of the players with the most miles run), and to a certain extent, Lin. What does this mean? McHale's non-existent offensive schemes will be magnified even more.

 

Morey just went from being Littlefinger to being Robb Stark.

 

Good move for Harden...???That was pure luck that Harden didn't get traded somewhere else while Morey was trying to trade all his assets for Howard who didn't want to be here and said he wasn't going to stay. A good move would have been if he was calling OKC as soon as they lost in the finals which would have avoided getting Lin and maybe they paid Dragic and he'd be here.

Pure luck that Phil wasn't in charge in L.A. and Brooklyn didn't have any cap space as far as getting Howard.

Sometimes it can be better to be lucky than good but other than those two lucky occasions how often has Morey been good.

 

I'm super-bummed because cute girls will not be going to Rockets games anymore.

 

I will always remember how he let Lilliard hit that 3 that ended our series.

True Rocket fan here hoping to hear some good news, any almost good news would help about now.

 

Well that's a good thing then.

Fastbreak ball never wins you anything in the posteason and if it means Mchale's strategy will be exposed then I'm fine with that.

 

Nice break down torocan. Pretty much the same way I see it as well.

 

Again, you lack understanding of cap space and what it means. It's not about the sheer money you're paying. It's the room you're taking in the cap that can't be moved.

And the process you just described, with parsons coming back and asking morey to match, is exactly what RESTRICTED free agent mandates. In unrestricted free agency, parsons can just sign that contract without ever giving the rockets a single chance.