It’s a Business – In that vein, Bill Simmons runs down the best bargain contracts in the NBA. Lo and behold, the Houston Rockets have three of them. Carlos Delfino (2 years, $6 million) gets and honorable mentions. Omer Asik (3 years, $25.1 million) comes in at number 13, and Chandler Parsons (3 years, $2.78 million) ranked number 7:
When Dork Elvis dealt a former lottery pick (Morris Twin X) to Phoenix for a future second-round pick, on the surface it seemed like a salary/minutes dump. But was it? The Rockets were betting on their history of finding second-round gems (Carl Landry, Chase Budinger and Parsons), as well as the upside that comes with locking down a potential rotation guy at an absurdly cheap price.
Our 17 best second-rounders since 2006: Paul Millsap, Steve Novak, Carl Landry, Glen Davis, Marc Gasol, Ramon Sessions, Nikola Pekovic, DeAndre Jordan, Omer Asik, Goran Dragic, Marcus Thornton, Chase Budinger, Danny Green, Lance Stephenson, Kyle Singler, Chandler Parsons and Isaiah Thomas. Including Novak (whom they waived eventually), the Rockets somehow landed four of them.
Of course, Simmons could have just waited two days, saved his breath, and shown Parsons’ highlights from last night’s beat down of the Mavs.
Ridin’ Nerdy – If you’re a fan of analytics, then I suggest reading ESPN’s coverage of the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (co-chaired by Daryl Morey) here, here and especially here. That third link will send you to an article titled, “Overheard at Sloan,” and it contains the following pricelessly snippy exchanges between Morey and Mavs’ owner Mark Cuban:
On drafting Royce White:
“You were going to draft the same guy we did.”
– Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets general manager“Yeah, but we would have dealt with it differently.”
– Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks ownerOn setting a path to success:
“Be a nuisance until they hire you.”
– Morey, on his path to success“Please don’t take that as a suggestion.”
– CubanOn dealing with the front-office friction with the analytics movement:
“You own a team; it’s a lot easier.”
– Morey to Cuban
But maybe the most insightful line from Morey comes on the topic of how deeply sports have delved into analytics: “We are nowhere yet.”
Tweet That – You can tell how much winning and losing affects this year’s team by their tweeting habits. After a loss, you’ll normally see something close to a 48 hours Twitter blackout. After last night? Explosion:
Bonus question: can anyone explain to me Chandler Parsons’ connection to “ratchet?”
Soak It In – Chandler Bang clearly enjoyed his career night and the ensuing swarm of reporters at his locker afterward. What cracks me up from this video (start at about the 0:40 mark) is that neither he nor coach McHale gave him any credit for holding Dirk to just 8 points.
Side note: Parsons wore the same ridiculous glasses after posting his previous career high of 31 against the Knicks. I suspect betting is involved…
Very Superstitious – In their regular game preview for the Rockets-Mavs games (the one past and the one coming), the folks over at the Dream Shake gave the Mavs players the advantage at every position to reverse jinx the Rockets into winning. Of course, the author expressly stated that this was not a reverse jinx, but I think that line was just there to reverse jinx the reverse jinx. Anyways, it worked.
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