By David Thorpe | ESPN Insider February 26, 2014, 3:29 PM ET
Rockets forward has developed into one of the game's best big wings
To the casual observer, the NBA is mostly filled with players who have been dominating their peers their entire lives. These players are taller, faster, stronger and, ultimately, better.
Indeed, some players were simply among the best in their class through three or four years of high school then for a year or two in college before entering the NBA draft. But the vast majority of NBA players come of age a bit later. They were not necessarily top-level recruits when they entered high school (or in some cases, when they left high school), and they were not starters or stars as underclassmen while playing in college. But hard work, and perhaps a growth spurt and a filled-out physique, became these players' tickets to real success.
Houston Rockets forward Chandler Parsons personifies this particular type of NBA journey. He has grown from being a second-round steal (38th overall in 2011) to perhaps the most underrated player in the game today. He should be the president of the "Late Bloomers" club, and he just might be the X factor who can drive Houston toward an NBA Finals date with the Miami Heat or Indiana Pacers.
Here's a look at Parsons' basketball development and where he stacks up among the NBA's top players.
How Parsons developed
To be fair, Parsons isn't just a profile in hard work. College programs throughout the country are filled with players who have worked as hard as Parsons to improve their games, but few of them are 6-foot-9 with near-elite athleticism. So Parsons had some advantages built in.
Those advantages, though, did not carry him to great heights at first. He was perhaps the second- or third-best player on his high school team, a now legendary group that went to four high school final fours in Florida (winning one) and was led by surging NBA rookie Nick Calathes, a McDonald's All American point guard who went to Europe before coming stateside. Parsons and Calathes both went to Florida, where for three years Parsons teased fans with NBA potential and lukewarm production.
He had a great feel for the game, good ball skills and great basketball IQ, but the package it came in just did not do anything to make people think he would reach his pro potential. As a senior, though, that all changed dramatically. He played much more athletically and assertively and as a result captured 2011 SEC Player of the Year honors.
NBA teams worried about his "softness" and thought it was just a case of a 22-year-old beating up younger players. And that was indeed what he was doing. It's just that once he learned how to play that way, it didn't matter if the opponents were college kids or professionals. He had developed the confidence and aggressiveness to succeed.
Parsons has the tools to dominate almost anyone. Houston quickly realized it had its small forward of the future, and he has filled that role since his rookie season. The Rockets have more than just a starting small forward on perhaps the best-value contract in pro sports for anyone who is not a superstar; they have one of the few truly unique wings in the game today.
Parsons deserves respect
Scouts love to compare players, and with Parsons, his best comparisons are, believe it or not, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. He certainly is not at their level, nor will he likely ever actually achieve that level, but he is far more similar than different to these two superstars.
First look at their comparable sizes (all three are 6-8 or taller) and ballhandling skills. Each player has some talent as a passer. Durant has proved over the years that he can facilitate as well as dominate as a scorer. James is likely the second-best passer in history for a player his size (behind Magic Johnson). Parsons ranks in the top 10 in assist rate among small forwards this season and is third on that list for players 6-8 or taller (behind Nicolas Batum and Andrei Kirilenko).
Now factor in Parsons' driving and slashing ability. The NBA.com stats page lists "drives" as any time a player starts at least 20 feet away from the basket and ends up with a shot inside 10 feet. Parsons ranks third in scoring on that list behind Durant and James among players 6-8 or taller. Every other player who has scored more than Parsons on drives is a point guard, shooting guard or primary ball handler. Ty Lawson and John Wall are perhaps the league's fastest guards with the ball in their hands. Only that pair, along with Durant and James, have a higher field goal percentage on drives than Parsons (52.7 percent).
Throw in Parsons' low turnover rate (9.8) and we get a clear picture of a wing slasher with great size and the athleticism to produce an excellent finishing rate. He also can effectively deliver the ball to shooters or scorers when defenses cut him off. Carmelo Anthony and Luol Deng are the only small forwards who score more than 17.0 PPG with a lower turnover rate than Parsons.
In effect, Houston has a 6-9 wing who should be mentioned next to names like Anthony, James, Durant and Deng. Those players were top-seven picks in the NBA draft and All-Stars multiple times over. Yet Parsons never has been named to an All-Star team.
Based on pure talent, he's elite
Parsons has a very flat shot. Often the trajectory of the ball seems barely above 10 feet. Most great shooters get the ball much higher in the air before it begins its descent toward the rim. Not Parsons. Because of the flatness of his shot, it's even more impressive to see he is hovering around 40 percent from 3-point range this season, which ranks as his best shooting season.
I often define talent as "production minus mechanics." What is left from that simple equation must be raw talent, or how else can production be explained? Parsons is exhibiting real talent as a shooter, and when combined with his other physical and basketball skills, he emerges by all comparisons as an elite player. Just four players stand 6-8 or taller, average 17 PPG or better and make at least 39 percent of their 3-pointers: Dirk Nowitzki, Anthony, Durant and Parsons. (Ryan Anderson is normally in that group but has been limited to 22 games this season because of injury.)
While Parsons has put up numbers that place him alongside the game's top players in a few key categories, pure scoring is not one of them. With James Harden at the 2-guard spot and Dwight Howard inside, Parsons' role is a "be everything" kind of guy, and he is doing that exceptionally well as the numbers previously mentioned suggest.
The question of whether Parsons can score like Anthony, Durant and James must remain open for now. It does seem likely he has that in him. Perhaps a long-term injury to one of the other two stars could offer that opportunity to showcase more of his scoring skills.
Or it's possible that in another season Parsons will choose to play somewhere else for more money and fame. He is one of the NBA's most cost-efficient players (see chart, courtesy of Kevin Pelton). Harden made the choice to leave Oklahoma City for more opportunity and spotlight, and as a result his scoring potential is starting to be realized.
The playoffs could be that time for Parsons to shine. In an atmosphere where defenses zero in on primary targets (Harden and Howard) and actions (pick-and-rolls) better than they can during the regular season, Parsons will explode as a scorer. Teams that choose to concentrate on Howard and Harden and make Parsons beat them could experience exactly that. If Parsons can repeatedly rise to the occasion, it is easy to see Houston winning the West.insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10521480/nba-chandler-parsons-developed-bona-fide-elite-player
選擇“Disable on www.wenxuecity.com”
選擇“don't run on pages on this domain”
