Mavs sign Chandler Parsons to 3-year, $46M offer sheet

[rQUOTEr]Next season, if Chandler Parsons’ car is in the shop again, he won’t have to borrow Dwight Howard’s extra Ferrari. He can now have one – or several – of his own.

The Rockets will soon determine whether he will park it next to Howard’s next season.

Their decision is more complicated than just whether they wish to pay him $46 million for the next three seasons.

After weeks in which they declared their certainty that Parsons would be back, a day after Parsons signed his offer sheet with the Mavericks and celebrated with his family and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in an Orlando club, it was unclear what the Rockets would do.

If the Rockets can sign nine-time All-Star Chris Bosh, they would then go all-in and match the offer sheet, a person with knowledge of their thinking said.

If they do not land Bosh, they were unsure whether they would match or not — the developments and decisions in the 72 hour-window to match to determine whether the Rockets hit the jackpot or crap out in the initial stages of free agency.

With Bosh and Parsons in between Howard and James Harden, the Rockets would consider themselves contenders and would be willing to pay the luxury tax penalties. Without Bosh, they would have to weigh what can be done to bolster the roster to determine whether to make Parsons their third max or near-max player.

The Rockets held brief talks with the Mavericks about a sign-and-trade for Parsons, Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said, potentially indicating the Rockets were considering moving on.

With the offer sheet delivered, that is no longer an option. The Rockets would have until 11 p.m. Sunday to match the offer sheet, Nelson said.

Bosh could make the decision for them by choosing to fill the cap room the Rockets plan for him and their void at power forward. The Rockets would then still have to rapidly carve out the cap space by completing the trade of Omer Asik, dealing Jeremy Lin, waiving their non-guaranteed players (save Pat Beverley) and likely moving at least two contracts, likely Donatas Motiejunas’ and Terrence Jones’.

If they can get all that done and get Bosh’s signature on a contract before their three-day window expires, they could plug in Bosh at power forward, bring Parsons back at small forward and pay luxury tax with the belief that it had been a successful off-season.

If not, the Rockets highlight of the first week and a half of free agency could be a Nick Johnson summer league dunk.

Bosh’s hesitance to commit to a max contract offer with the Rockets and their ideal fit would back the idea that he is waiting for LeBron James’ to make his decision. James did not seem likely to worry about the Rockets’ – or anyone else’s – timetable.

While James’ silence inspired various forms of peripheral madness – from reports that he would announce at a time to correspond to the Akron area code to neighbors gathering on his street in Bath Township, Ohio though he was playing pickup ball with high schoolers in Las Vegas – Bosh has been far removed from the lunacy.

Bosh’s family vacation took him to Ghana, where he had been in touch with the doings back home, but judging from the Twitter glimpses seemed far less concerned about where he would end up than so many others. That could indicate that the difficult part of his decision making was behind him.

The Rockets had not been given clear-cut answer on whether Bosh would definitely take their offer if James leaves the Heat, but indications had been that he would leave Miami if James does.

It had become clear, however, that the stakes of the Rockets decisions continued to rise.

The champion Spurs kept their free agents, the Trail Blazers and Clippers improved, the Thunder have been in talks with Pau Gasol and the Mavericks could be adding not one, but two Chandlers, having already brought back center Tyson Chandler to fill the void in the middle they’ve battled since he anchored their championship team.

If the Rockets do not land Bosh and lose Parsons, they will be slipping rapidly, with Parsons and soon Omer Asik gone and Lin offended and potentially on the way out.

There would still be time to address that. Even without their four top targets – James, Anthony, Bosh and Dirk Nowitzki – and their plan B, Kyle Lowry, the Rockets could still opt to keep Parsons and Lin and have most of last season’s rotation back.

They would have a large trade exception from the Asik trade to help work a deal to replace Asik or strengthen the bench at the wings. By staying over the salary cap, they would have their mid-level exception and bi-annual exception to rebuild the bench.

The Rockets have been in talks with the agents for Luol Deng, Trevor Ariza and Paul Pierce. With the deals for Parsons and Gordon Hayward potentially raising the price on small forwards, Ariza and especially Deng could attract contracts not very different from Parsons’. Pierce, who has seemed interested in the Rockets, might not be as expensive, but is unlikely to move at mid-level contract prices.

The Rockets would prefer that it does not come to that, but on Friday, they could only prepare backup plans, weighing options and waiting for the LeBron James domino to fall.

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...vs-not-a-simple-choice/#24500103=0&24793101=0[/rQUOTEr]