And let's not forget how awful the Rockets looked without Parsons when he missed games last season. They got demolished by the Utah Jazz for God's sake. Ariza is not going to replace what Parsons gave them. He'll hit open threes and occasionally finish in transition, but that's it. He can't be a playmaker like Parsons was. So who will fill that void? We also got rid of Lin who for all his faults was another option off the bench to run the offense. I don't think people realize how much of a dropoff the team could suffer as a result of letting Parsons walk. Especially when you add in the human element of Harden and especially Howard being PO'd at Rockets management for essentially throwing in the towel on the upcoming season before it's even started. If you were Dwight or James, would you really go out there and bust your ass to try to maybe eek out 50 wins when Morey and Les have publicly trashed the two of you and Parsons as not being contender material?
Morey went all in on very good odds of landing bosh. Thats a risk any of us would take if we were in the same position. We have been in that position the last three offseasons and two out of the three seasons we have landed superstars. So its more reasonable to hope that happens again than it is to hope Parsons turns into a player thats actually worth max money.
If Parsons were the supposedly 15M player, we should have been playing in the second round PO in May. Losing CP hurts, but he is not the third star anyway and it opens up a roster spot for Covington.
Except the Rockets only have 3 real options next off season, none are much better than Parsons and all will cost as much of more. Plus, the Rockets are much worse off this season. So we lose one year of Howard by punting this season and are unlikely to be any better in 2015-16 even IF we land one of those players. Then Howard can walk. We gained nothing in the past 3 days. The absolute best case scenario is landing Dragic, Millsap, or Rondo (even though I think he would be much worse than Parsons, especially when it means Bev would leave) next summer and being just a little better than we would have been with Parsons. Of course that also means having less to work with in terms of exceptions next year.
If you think the Lin trade was good without signing Bosh you are a LOH and no better than the LOFs. There is absolutely nothing good about it for the team.
Asik and Parsons were very good players, and we downgraded, how in the hell do you just give up on a Howard/Harden season.
Take a look at the rest of the roster. We downgraded the SF spot, we have no NBA caliber player at backup PG, we have no backup C at all and either DMo or Troy Daniels is our best bench player. That's REALLY REALLY depressing. I mean Harden and Howard are good enough to where we might hit the mid to upper 40's in wins, maybe even 50 if we're lucky, but that's our ceiling this year because of how badly the off-season was blundered.
Not true, DaDakota.. Parsons will be playing third fiddle to Dirk (21ppg) and Ellis (19ppg). Parsons is not Kawhi. Kawhi watches and learns. Parsons talks himself up. Kawhi has Popovich. Parsons didn't have anything close to Pop with the Rockets. Yes, Carlisle will use him well because he is a damn good coach and his numbers may go up. But should we have kept him just so dallas doesn't get better? Absolutely NOT. Oh and did I mention that Parsons isn't a defensive specialist and what we need most are defensive minded payers and coaching staff. I'm actually a Parsons fan but not a 15 million a year Parsons fan. We struggled to get rid of Lin's contract. Just imagine what would have happened if Parsons remained at his present level (more likely than reaching a theoretical ceiling of superstardom that only a few manage). We wait and we will attract more disgruntled players during the season.
You won't become a contender if you keep changing the roster. We had a good young core and now we're playing for a 7 or 8 seed now. We were playing to win now and not the future. Who cares about money for the future. I guarantee you Dwight and James don't. Daryl Morey is a slimy individual who treats as players as assets and not like family (ie the Spurs and Heat)
The championship or bust mindset is too black and white. 25 teams (including us by admission from our front office) should just go into full tank mode since that probably is the most mathematically sound method to increase your championship chances.
I think deep down (and because we've all been told by 100 different people on CF) we all know this now, but the problem is we were very very close to being real contenders, next season potentially. We swung for the fences for a third star and it all completely blew up in our faces, and now we are the same, or possibly a little worse. Yeah, ultimately it was the right move not matching, we can build a better team, we aren't locked in, but fact is we were supposed to be contending now, not later, and if we had gone about this offseason differently, that would almost definitely be the case. But instead we have to wait, and that's really frustrating.
I trust Morey as a talent evaluator, but to me, at some point, it feels as if he's underrating chemistry. Besides, Ariza is now locked in for 4 years. Ariza at 8 (million dollars) as opposed to Parsons at 14 is a pretty significant difference, but isn't Parsons much better than Ariza? Parsons is also a decent play-maker, though he may not give us the same defense. The point is, we saw what would happen if we had max cap room available, now that we don't, why does that flexibility matter?
Oh hush. They're not even close. Their second best player is Chandler Parsons and Raymond Felton is their starting PG next to Monta Ellis. Tyson Chandler has been garbage the past couple years. Dirk's in decline. They aren't closer.
im ok with losing parsons, but its that we lost lin, asik and parsons for next to nothing. thsoe 3 were good trading pieces and our three best trading pieces. sure its good for next offseason, but then we waste another year of the end of dwight's prime years. im hoping morey does somehting this week, still plenty of time left for some moves
Let's face it. We were never going to get much value for Lin or Asik, due to the political aspects of the NBA. Not dragging those guys through another season, or underpaying Parsons for that matter, is about as solid as an outcome we could have ever expected. Those guys played with their backs against the wall. Now, Bev, T Jones, and D-Mo will be in the do-or-die position, not only fighting for wins but for contracts. They've shown up under some limited pressure or even from left field, have their own perks, and above all, one more year of NBA experience. Unlike the three guys we just lost (not including Casspi), they weren't thrown into the fire from day one, but they will be now. If familiarity beats out shaken trust, then our team will be one step closer to finding its true groove, rather than staying ill-equipped like last season. Come All-Star Break, we will know where we stand, and players will still be willing to jump to our ship than off it... for now. 'Til then, we address our problems: slowing the post on D and orchestrating the offense on the point. Neither of those have complete solutions. We already have prospects from the draft and D-League, so that shows front office is addressing the issues from the womb, so to speak. Whichever route we go, we have to fully commit to it. Personally, I'd go with shoring up the paint with the PF position, that way we help Dwight, our true leader, secure the rim against both elite big men and pesky small guys to the best of our abilities. It won't be perfect, but that way we'd force our opponents to beat us long distance. The stretch 4 option was a cop-out. We need to get physical up front and accept that we lack the defensive finesse at the one and two spots and can ideally duel with the best in the West in that regard. We're back to being under the radar, but still bubbling at that. Hope is not lost. Consistency, wherever that lands us, is key to everything falling into place. With Ariza, our starting D went from underwhelming to underrated. Our developing guards have firepower. That means getting a solid four or five, whether that guy starts or not, is the next step and should factor into our new cap room. So by mid-season, if Bev doesn't pan out, we package him for an upgrade. We've traded junk players for better before. I admit to being temporarily swept into Big 3 mania, though I was initially against it. I wanted a PG like Rubio. Now that the situations changed to what it is now, we'd be better off refining our D as best we can. Besides, we can spare just a little offense to get better all-around.
Kawhi Leonard is a big ball player in the playoffs and clutch player. Parsons is more of a regular season guy with intangibles and good stats.
Dirk is like 36, 37 soon, what the heck are you talking about, DD? Get off Parsons' nuts. Lol... I stick by my theory it has to happen a miracle if he turns out to be the Michale Jordan of 2nd round picks.
