David Baumann: Rockets passed on Josh Smith to save money for Parsons.

I think Josh Smith is a fine player, but his scoring efficiency is well below average.

47% FG% is a unsatisfying when you consider that the guy takes relatively few 3s, gets to the line at a fairly mediocre rate and shoots rather poorly at the line, and turns the ball over at a high rate.

His career TS% is an unsatifying 51.6%, his career ORtg is an unsatisfying 102.

So, no. Nobody should be very satisfied with 47% FG%.

 

It has nothing to do with personality. It has to do with the fact that he's an inefficient chucker.

Also, it doesn't come out of our pockets, but we understand that Les is unlikely to sign 4 long term max to near max contracts. That would send us into an unprecedented level of tax hell that gets compoundingly worse every year. Even Brooklyn and their ridiculous payroll won't be that bad.

That contract would be untradeable. He's laughably overpaid.

 

I don't get your argument at all, if you're not gonna get 2 superstars' worth of production, then wouldn't it be worse with 3 superstars because you won't get 3 superstars worth of production?

What you and a lot of the ESPN crowd here don't seem to understand is that this isn't NBA2k, filling your roster out with 3 superstars and a bunch of Dleaguers won't win you a title. The only reason Miami's big 3 has been winning isn't because they had a big 3, it's because their big 3 happened to include Lebron, if that had been any other player they wouldn't have won anything these past two years. It was the same thing for Boston, only time they won a ring was when Rondo, Perkins, Posey and PJ Brown were all on the team helping their big 3 out, when the reality is these guys shouldn't be on the team because the team already spent all their cap on their big 3.

This isn't a one-vs-one, or superstar vs superstar match, it's a team vs team. If you think about it, Miami already has 3 superstars, you're not gonna beat them with another 3 superstars because LBJ/Wade/Bosh's star power is automatically better than whatever 3 superstars you bring together. Miami easily dismantled OKC Thunder superstars, but the Spurs and Pacers with just 1 superstar (TD) took them to 7 games this year, and they did it by exploiting matchups in the PG and Center position.

 

Late to this, thats probably A reason but I don't think is THE reason.

I think its Rockets not wanting to go Orlando Rashard Lewis approach WAY overpaying for a good but not great free agent, and it kills their cap flexibility down the road when its time for a true upgrade.

Even though Rockets are going "all in", its still give our team a fair deal or discount or get going. Its what the Spurs would do.

I don't think he needs to improve to THAT level. Basically Parsons lured in Howard, so that counts for something.

But yeah for all this Parsons love, he's just a tad better over a Gordon Hayward and that type player.