I don't think it's a top 4 seed, but it would be a very good and very dangerous team in the playoffs that is capable of going on a run.

That said, Parsons isn't coming here. Morey is about to make a braindead move of signing Ariza, matching Parsons, and having Parsons play the 4.

Yeah, it's looking like Morey is going to outthink himself and resign Parsons. Lol

My 3 or 4 seed remark was based obviously on us getting Parsons. If he stays with the Rockets, that obviously changes the equation.

We just picked up Greg "C" Smith. He will take on the banger role that Blair had. If we can bring in Stephenson and Mo Williams, that will address our remaining needs (SF, perimeter D and 3 point shooting).

As stated, after SA and OKC, there is a drop-off. The Clips and the Rockets (assuming they match for Parsons) are probably the next two, but if the Mavs bring in Williams and Stephenson, the difference between the 3 and 5 is going to be pretty insignificant.

Regardless, the Mavs are looking to be clearly better than Memphis and almost knocked off the Spurs as the 8th seed. As someone already stated, you give Carlisle 5th seed talent and the man can make a title run. He can get guys like Felton and Stephenson in line. It didn't work with LaLa Odoms, but that joker was homesick for LA the whole time he was here.

[This message has been edited by AgBeliever (edited 7/13/2014 12:43p).]

What's Morey thinking? It doesn't seem like sound strategy to sign players just to keep them out of the hands of your rival. I understand sometimes that just happens and it's a win-win, but the players need to fit on your team first. Parsons is going to get manhandled by bigger, taller power forwards at the 4. I mean it's great you have Dwight guarding the rim and all, but guys like Dirk and Duncan and Pao and Bosh will just be able to back him down to their favorite spot and shoot right over him. It seems like he's running his club out of spite for Cuban right now.

[This message has been edited by R0GUE (edited 7/13/2014 12:31p).]

Parsons is decently tall, but he doesn't have the muscle to play PF in the west.

PF of the West:
TheMarcus
Blake Griffin
Tim Duncan
Kevin Love
Anthony Davis
David Lee
Zach Randolph
Serge Ibaka
Boris Diaw
Morris Twins
Faried
Jordan Hill

Parsons just doesn't match up well there at all. He could probably pull it off better in the East.

I think it is more a thought along the lines of "Acquire assets, try to make a deal later. Can't make a deal without assets."

I seriously doubt Ariza plays out his 4 years in Houston. Especially if he gets lazy after signing a big contract and comes out of the gate shooting 39% again.

Yeah, I'm pretty skeptical of the whole Parsons Stretch 4 thing working too.

Yeah, he can launch 3s. But on D he is going to be atrocious. If people thought Dirk's D was bad, wait until they see Parson play the 4.

Maybe the whole thing is a smoke screen. I hope for the Rocket fans that is the case.

Parson's D in 2014 will be better than Dirk's D in 2014 at any position. Dirk just doesn't have the mobility anymore.

Dirk compensates by being a Top 15 Offensive player though, Parsons is like Top 50.

Dirk outweighs Parsons by 20 pounds. He isn't going to get pushed around nearly as bad as Parsons is going to get mauled. To suggest otherwise is asinine.

[This message has been edited by AgBeliever (edited 7/13/2014 12:59p).]

That compensation becomes less useful in the playoffs.

quote:

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Dirk outweighs Parsons by 40 pounds. He isn't going to get pushed around nearly as bad as Parsons is going to get mauled. To suggest otherwise is asinine.

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Dirk won't get pushed around like Asik. They will just go past him constantly like the Spurs did in the playoffs. If you watch the Spurs highlights from the playoffs last year, the thing many clips had in common was an out of position, flat footed Dirk unable to recover.

And it's also why we brought Dirk's buddy Tyson back. He will help a lot.

Exactly.

It's no secret that the Mavs D had problems on the interior and perimeter. Chandler definitely addresses the interior. Hopefully we bring in Stephenson to address the perimeter.

And nobody is talking about Parsons' inability to get in position. What we are talking about is when he gets isolated on another 4 and gets pushed around. He is going to get mauled there worse than Dirk.

Don't take your Mav trolling to the point you look silly.

[This message has been edited by AgBeliever (edited 7/13/2014 1:08p).]

There is nothing trolling about posting the truth, junior. Don't embarrass yourself here like you do on the Politics board.

Whatever pothead.

No serious basketball person thinks Parsons is better suited to play the Stretch 4 than Dirk, which is what you are implying.

Troll.

You just called someone who has never smoked pot a pothead and are accusing other people of being a troll.

And sadly, that might be the most intelligent thing you have ever posted because at first glance, everything seemed to be spelled correctly.

quote:

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No serious basketball person thinks Parsons is better suited to play the Stretch 4 than Dirk, which is what you are implying.

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I'm not implying that at all, and the fact that you cannot understand that at all is further evidence that you do not know what you are talking about and have trouble drawing basic conclusions from simple statements. Dirk is obviously a better player. But his defense is completely worthless at this point in his career and he is a complete negative on that end of the court in any situation. He is clearly still a positive offensive player, but that positive dwindles a lot in the postseason when teams change how they play.

Dirk's defense is bad. He swipes at the ball like a rec player. Thankfully he compensates on offense.

Tyson signing was necessary.

Let's see: you throw in some random pissy remark on another board about some stupid thread you created (on how great the legalization of marijuana has been in Colorado).

And you say Dirk's D is worse at the stretch 4 than Parsons, while also saying it doesn't matter if Dirk is a top 15 player and Parsons is a top 50.

But yet you say you're not a troll.

Yeah right.

Dirk's D might be worse than any other starting player at PF.

I'm sorry you apparently aren't smart enough to connect the dots on very simple sentences and apparently don't know much about basketball or politics, since you seem to want to talk about both a lot.

As flatfooted as Dirk may look at times, he's still 7ft with enough strength not to get pushed around. I'll take that at the 4 over someone that can be easily backed down and/or shot over all day long. Having Tyson back in the fold to help clean up the messes Dirk's flatfootedness leads to is big. Tyson isn't as useful in a situation where the offensive player just goes over the top of the 4.

[This message has been edited by DannyDuberstein (edited 7/13/2014 1:43p).]

I agree Dirk's D is not great. We all know that.

But to say Parson is better equipped to play against the other 4s in the league than Dirk when he is only 225 and Dirk is 245 is silly.

And having Chandler back there will allow Dirk to take less silly chances than he has been.

Exactly Danny.

Let's not pretend Dirk is significantly stronger than Parsons.



Parsons is more athletic, quicker and can jump better.

Being a decade younger has its advantages, too.

I wouldn't be happy with either player playing defense on any of the PFs in the West. Go around Dirk; go through Parsons.

Now if Parsons was the type of extremely athletic defender that could climb in a guy's jock and be a constant pest in spite of giving up size, that would be one thing. But he's not.

And my point is "around" buys a little time and gives room for a guy like Tyson to close and do his thing. "Through" along with over is a tougher cleanup job.

[This message has been edited by DannyDuberstein (edited 7/13/2014 1:51p).]

He might be more like that under Carlisle, but will never be like that under McHale. Parsons played much better defense his rookie year than the last two years where he looked to have a similar interest level of Harden.

And the addition of Chandler does help cover for Dirk's mistakes, just like having both Asik and Dwightmare helps cover mistakes by everyone not named Beverly on the Rockets.

And let's not pretend that Parsons can do a better job of battling the 4s in the West.

Teams that have to rely on help defense like that often get torched hard by great passing teams because they are better able to find the open player. If Chandler/Dwight have to keep leaving their man to help recover for Dirk or Parsons, guys like Duncan/Diaw/TheMarcus/Gasol/LeBron are going to regularly find the open man. That's exactly what the Spurs did against Miami's blitzkrieg defense in the Finals and without that trapping, Miami really didn't have another option because they couldn't hang with a well-rounded team straight up on defense. If Dallas loses out on Marion, they may have that same problem with more than likely having defensive holes everywhere but center.

quote:

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What's Morey thinking? It doesn't seem like sound strategy to sign players just to keep them out of the hands of your rival.

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And how is that different than Cuban wanting to overpay for Chandler by offering him $15MM a year?

Cuban has a closing window with Dirk and the RFA always takes some sweetening.

Parsons still has time to get better though.. He turns 26 in October. His offense has improved every year, so he has the work ethic to improve his offensive game. Hopefully this offseason he can develop his defensive game. Obviously a lot harder to do. So we will see how he performs under this current contract.

Parsons fills a big need for Dallas AND at the same time, it screws your rival. It made it more difficult for them to juggle the Bosh/Melo thing and it now makes Houston consider that they may go into the luxury tax to keep a player that they don't really need now that they have a starting-quality SF. So now they have two SFs, neither of whom are elite, and neither of whom will work well on the court together making $23mm total and that pushes the team close to the luxury tax.

I'm sad Deng is off the board. We better get Stephenson or this is offseason is going to wind up with a bit of a fizzle.

Agree. I still think they are better than last year, but not by a big enough margin.

I love how GS is so condescending yet he misses on the obvious.

The Mavs won a championship just three years ago with Dirk at the 4 and Chandler at the 5. Yes, they are a little older and a little slower, but it is the same system.

It remains to be seen how well the Parsons Stretch 4 experiment will be with Howard at the 5. Yes, it could work. But it's a big unknown, especially if Parsons sees a lot of isos which he no doubt will.

[This message has been edited by AgBeliever (edited 7/13/2014 2:15p).]

Yeah, it's not like Dirk's D was good in 2011. Carlisle can limit the exposure with some other tools, tools he hasn't had since 2011.