The Mavs‘ Chandler Parsons indicated that he might not be ready for the start of training camp next season, Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com tweets. Parsons is out for the remainder of the playoffs with an injured knee that will require surgery to repair, and the estimated recovery time won’t be known until after the procedure has been performed, Sneed notes. The forward just completed the first season of the three-year, $46.08MM deal he signed last offseason.
Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- The trade for Rajon Rondo was a high risk, high reward move that failed miserably for the Mavericks, Mark Followill of The Dallas Morning News writes. Dallas needed to acquire more All-Star level talent to compete in the Western Conference, but Rondo was clearly not the same player physically that he was prior to his knee injury, Followill notes.
- Reflecting back on the Spurs‘ decision to draft Kawhi Leonard back in 2011, GM R.C. Buford knew he was a raw player, but Leonard’s potential was evident from the beginning, Mike Monroe of The San Antonio Express-News writes. “I don’t know that we were trying to anticipate a best-case scenario,” Buford said. “We needed a small forward that came with a defensive mentality, that would complement the skill sets of the guys we had. But there also needed to be a lot of growth and development to fit into that.” Leonard can become a restricted free agent this summer if San Antonio tenders him a qualifying offer worth $4,433,683, which it almost assuredly will do.
- Rondo is just another in a long line of veteran players whose reputations have been destroyed after a stint with the Mavs, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM writes. Dallas has tried to shoehorn in a number of players over the years who were poor fits for the team’s roster and system, a practice that needs to cease if the team wishes to contend in the West once again, Tjarks notes. The RealGM scribe cites Lamar Odom, Darren Collison, Delonte West, O.J. Mayo and Chris Kaman as previous examples of this pattern.