The Rockets are coming off of their biggest offseason in franchise history, headlined by the addition of the summer's No. 1 (or 1A/B) free agent. There's little doubt that the Rockets are poised to take a giant leap forward in 2013/14, but as we learned last season at Dwight Howard's last stop, nothing is guaranteed. But as far as standout small forward Chandler Parsons is concerned, the addition of Howard makes the club "immediate contenders", writes Jabari Davis of HoopsWorld.
“He’s the best center in the NBA, so he’s going to help our defense greatly,” Parsons said of Howard. “And on the other end, just being able to throw the ball into the post to a guy that can create double-teams and get to the line, it’s huge for our offense.”
While the Rockets had to do some amount of roster shuffling and lost promising forward Thomas Robinson and veteran Carlos Delfino in the process, Houston still has a great deal of depth to support their souped up starting five. As much as Omer Asik may hate the idea of getting bumped, he stands as one of the league's best frontcourt players off of the bench. And while the club explored landing a third star like Josh Smith to put alongside Howard and James Harden, one could argue that they already have one in the making in Parsons.
Parsons says that the Rockets are ready to contend right away, but we want to know if the readers of Hoops Rumors see them reaching the Finals right off of the bat.