Rockets GM Daryl Morey gambled and lost with Chandler Parsons, electing not to match a near-maximum three-year offer sheet from the Mavs when he could have simply brought him back for $964,750 had he exercised Houston’s team option on the small forward. He also missed out on Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh last week, settling for a much less glamorous agreement with Trevor Ariza. Morey took to the radio airwaves Monday in Houston to try to explain just what went wrong, and he called the structure of the Parsons offer sheet “one of the most untradeable structures that I’ve ever seen,” as we passed along earlier. Adam Wexler of CSNHouston.com and the Houston Chronicle roundup more of Morey’s remarks on SportsTalk 790 and SportsRadio 610, and we’ll hit the highlights here:
On why the team completed the Jeremy Lin trade an opened cap room:
“We had the offer to Chris, while it looked extremely likely, our deal for Jeremy [Lin] was going to go away. We had to move before we had the 100% [from Bosh], because the Lakers were ready to move on with other things.”
On the decision against matching the deal for Parsons:
“It takes three, at least, three elite players with very little exception, throughout history, it takes three elite players and a good set of players that fit around them. Once Bosh said ‘no’ it put us into another very difficult decision of, is matching Chandler Parsons, do we have a better chance of winning a title by matching it or not matching it. That comes down to a very simple question, is [James] Harden, [Dwight] Howard, Parsons a three that can be a championship three? I actually think it can be. I think Chandler is a great player, getting better. Really, really good player, no doubt. But the question is actually: is Harden, Howard, Parsons, is that three a better championship odds than Harden, Howard and the team we can put together with a guaranteed lottery pick, trade exceptions, mid-level young team improving and continuing to be flexible? That was the very tough decision before us. But I can tell you this, in our opinion it was not close. We are in a better [place] to win a championship by not matching it, once Bosh goes away than by not matching it.”
On the opportunity the team lost and what it can still accomplish:
“We felt like we were on the, right there, on having potentially having the best team in the NBA if we got Bosh and matched Parsons. We feel great about where we’re at, as well. With the youngest playoff team last year and a team that is continuing to improve with Patrick Beverley and a young core behind it and a lot of ways to continue to improve this season … We were right at the precipice of, what I would argue maybe is the best team in the NBA.”
On his expectations for the year ahead:
“We feel we were almost there with the Bosh-Parsons moves. When that didn’t happen we felt like the best thing to do was step back. We’ve now got a pick, a guaranteed lottery pick basically that is now is exactly structured like the pick that got us James Harden last time. We now have trade exceptions, we now have cap room and we also have pretty good team that’s a top four seed team in the west even with the decision not to match Chandler.”