Great post, just like the OP. People like Clutch calling letting Parsons become an RFA a blunder are just using results-based analysis.
Far from it. I've been very clear -- you had to make your additional moves (third best player) before locking in Chandler. If you didn't have good confidence of that, making Parsons an RFA was very, very high-risk to your cap situation -- even if Chandler had gotten $12M+ a year. The Rockets will survive it, but it was a big mistake all the same.
The Parsons era is gone now...I hope Jeremy Lin, Omer Asik, Aaron Brooks, Mook, Jordan Hill, Lowry, Dragic, Pat...heck even Caspi have successful careers & I'll even watch them play, but I couldn't care less about Chandler 'Boozer' anymore. Good bye & good riddance Mr Pretty Boy Superstar.
Agreed - I was under the impression that because they made him a RFA, that they intended to match - no matter what. Otherwise, what was the point of even doing that? DD
Parsons isn't a loss at all. And I acutally liked him. Mavs overpaid for a streaky 3 shooter that has back problems, and can't guard an all-star. Let me guess you contend that he's the "glue guy". We need Dwight, or better yet, Harden to step up as the leader. How do either do that with this glue guy making leadership a sticky situation?
Oh for sure. What really galls me about this is that Morey's blunder has allowed Cuban to save his off season. Before Sunday, Cuban and the Mavs had managed to: Miss out on the big FA names for a 3rd consecutive year (no Carmelo and LeBron didn't even grant them a meeting) Bring back Tyson Chandler (thereby publicly admitting your screwup two years ago when you let him go for the sake of "financial flexibility") Signing Devon Harris to play PG Get stuck with Raymond (Burp) Felton Before Sunday, the mood amongst the MFFLs was hostile and lackluster. But now, with the addition of CP25, the Mavs are back in the saddle, the blue koolaid is flowing and e v e r y d a y the sports talking heads are waxing poetic on how Morey aka Dork Elvis got out smarted by Mark "Shark Tank" Cuban.
Exactly what I've been trying to determine as well. Fortunately, today, all of the Dallas sports talk shows have agreed to look into this for me as they rehash this point ad nausem.
SMH If they matched that contract, they would be both cap-strapped for the next three years, AND unable to trade him to make room for someone better. The question is, do you BELIEVE that Parsons would have been enough alongside Harden and Howard to make the Rockets an NBA Champion? I believe that, alongside Harden, Howard and BOSH, Parsons would have been a perfectly good-to-above-average starter on THAT team, and THAT team would likely have won a championship. But do you BELIEVE that just Harden, Howard and Parsons (plus whoever else could be filled in after Asik & Lin were gone) would have won the Rockets a ring? I certainly don't. And Morey didn't either. This is no knock on Chandler - I like the guy, I think he's a GOOD player (not a great player), and I always wanted to keep him here. SO DID MOREY. But without Bosh, the plan to keep Parsons at all costs was no longer a good idea, it was suicide, and you don't waste Howard and Harden's best years by committing cap suicide. You just don't do that. And you don't stand pat after last season either. Do you really need to have to re-watch that final play of the Portland series again? While we HAVE the superstars on our team, NOW is the time to swing for those fences, to maximize the potential we already have. Sigh. Some people call it a blunder, a mistake. But that's not really accurate, because those same people would be delerious with joy had the moves worked out. And the reasons the moves didn't work were not due to an error or mistake by Morey, THEY WERE DUE TO OUTRAGEOUSLY STUPID DECISIONS BY OTHER GMS. If you want to call it anything, call it collateral damage from the shockwaves of the stupid decisions of Jordan, Riley and Cuban, the NBA's version of the Three Stooges. Look. Ariza is a better fit anyway. Lin, everyone knew he would be gone, and it would cost a pretty penny to move him, everyone already knew that. Asik, what, did we expect to keep him for another year of pouting and only playing half a season because of mysterious phantom ailments again? Of course not, we knew he was gone too, and we got a NOP FIRST for the guy! We're going to be fine. Would we have been better with Bosh & Parsons? Probably. But hindsight tells me that I am glad we don't have Bosh - a guy who is more concerned about getting paid than about winning - and as for Parsons? Yeah I'll miss him too. But what is it we will really be missing anyway? I think he had become almost our version of a Kardashian - his status was more that of a 'celebrity' than for anything specific he did well on the court, other than just sort of general 'glue guy' stuff. The things he did on the court that we really loved, he hasn't done those things in two years anyway. So to answer your question of 'Why did they do that? (making CP a RFA) Because no one in their right mind would have offered Bosh more than we were already over-paying. It can hardly even be called a gamble. And at that point, nobody cared whether CP got offered crazy money or not, because we were going to be LOADED and paying the LT was worth it, for a couple years at least. If you want to be upset at anyone, be upset at the ones who deserve it - Riley and Bosh, not Morey. Heck, not even Parsons really, he did what he should have done, he expected to be back here too, just as a higher-paid player. I for one will be looking forward eagerly to each game against the Heat this season, so I can savor the absolute THRASHING we are going to put on them. Enjoy your 7th-seed 1st round exits for the next five years, Riley & Bosh...
The main mistake was to feature him as the second ball handler on the team as McHale did, which pepped his stats and drove up his value. He owe his new contract to McHale who placed the 8mil guy Lin behind the 1mil guys Parsons and Beverly in the order of ball handling privilege, who was however the 2nd best behind Harden.
I dunno about bev, his job was basically bring it up so the other guys didnt have to then give it to them, but the parsons thing i certainly noticed. Moving Parsons out of the corner and to Harden's opposite wing (and Lin vice versa) had a major impact on both players.
The bigger mistake was dumping the picks with Lin. But that's a different conversation to have. You didn't need to add picks to a Lin trade at the deadline. Saying that, we could come away with Dragic and all will be forgiven.
As a Mavs fan I can tell you that the ones of us in touch with reality know Parsons is well overpaid and the verdict is still out. Dirk discount or no. The last 3 years Cuban has lost a lot of faith with me. I considered trading Wright and going after Pau/Ariza superior and out of the trio of Ariza/Stevenson/Thomas would have preferred any two of those to Parsons. I think he will get more shots in Dallas and more of a chance to shine, but it's nowhere near a given that he'll be an all-star worth that contract. And if he is, he can opt out in 2 years.
100% agree with you, except for Florida doesn't have state income tax. Regardless, he doesn't care about winning anymore. People on CF tend to be short sighted on things like this - and you sir have pegged it correctly.
