When we signed Ariza, I posted 2 or 3 times that I wanted Parsons matched and coming off the bench just to, basically, punish him for signing with Cuban, being in those stupid photos with Cuban, and even worse, putting the screws to Morey's constant plan to retain flexibility during this critical period (actually, Daryl wants flexibility 365 days a year, but this was a very serious need right now). I was and remain ticked off at Chandler. However, your point was also in my mind. Ariza 1.0 had an ego the size of Kansas, and your worry shouldn't be dismissed. While Parsons could adapt to a 6th man role and thrive (I don't doubt that), has Ariza's ego been tamed with time? The last thing we need is a disgruntled Ariza messing up our chemistry. Whether he can be a 6th man is a very reasonable question to ask, and we don't know the answer. I hope so, because despite wanting to humble Parsons a bit, he should be slated to start at the 3. Ariza might get a start here and there due to match ups (or injury), but otherwise is ideal to reduce Harden's and Parson's minutes. Unless Morey doesn't match, my assumption is that it's a big part of why we got him, the biggest reason, in my opinion, being the dire need for a 3 and D option off the bench.
The Rockets will have a salary total of ~$75 million for next season. 8M is roughly 1/9 of that. Basically what's slightly below average for an 8-man rotation. Seems fine with me.
Good post. I said the same thing. Unless we see Parsons play the 4, it will be interesting to see where Ariza is at the end of games. Is he on the court playing the 3/4 spot or is he on the bench? If we match Parsons, we're paying him a ton of dough so he's going to get his minutes. Remember he played one of the highest MPG in the league last year. And we know Harden needs to be in the game. So where does that leave Ariza? Against the top teams in the WCF, they all have premier PFs. I can't see Parsons playing the 4 for extended periods of time. It works in spurts but over time he's going to get dominated in the paint. This is the predicament, let's hope McHale can figure it out. That's my greatest worry. McHale is not a great game manager.
<a href='http://i.imgur.com/YsOs62F' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/YsOs62F.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a> If we do I got the pic covered
There is a significant difference between the Asik/Howard situation and a potential Ariza/Parsons situation. Asik and Howard could not effectively play with each other on a regular basis. So, the team could only have one of them on the floor at a time except for some rare occasions. They did break out the "twin towers" again as things got desperate in the playoffs with Jones unable to defend Aldridge, but even then it was clear that the team was trading offensive spacing for defense. Ariza and Parsons, on the other hand, can play together-- either at SG and SF in a regular lineup when Harden sits or at SF and PF in a spread 4 lineup. An Ariza bench role will be like an expanded version of what Carlos Delfino had for the team in 2012-13 when he averaged 25 mpg even with Parsons and Harden each logging heavy minutes. Ariza is a better player, so you can hopefully bump his minutes up by 3 or 5 to give Parsons or Harden more of a break.
Great comparison! The team sorely lacked what Delfino brought to the table last season and your right, Ariza does it better. DM always mentioned that the best on court group in 2012/2013 was the group the included both Parsons and Delfino on the floor together.
If we had to bring back someone that had a skill we sorely missed it wouldn't be Delfino, it wouldn't be Patterson, it wouldn't be Ariza - it would be Hayes. Parsons/Delfino wouldn't have done a thing to save us in the Portland series and they wouldn't have gotten us past the Clippers. Undersized shooters aren't going to help us get past teams with real 4's. We failed to land Bosh but we need to address our real problems, not play to gimmicks.
Stop with the wishful thinking.Why would D12 leave because we let Parsons walk.You Parsons fans keep overlooking that he begged Howard to come here for less than Max,so he could sign for ? Oh yea the Max. When he changed agents,he hatched his plan to screw Rockets.If D12 took less,I would think that works two ways.Pretty sure Les and Morey thought the same.
