Houston Rockets: Can Chandler Parsons Become A Star?

With the 38th pick of the 2011 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets selected 2011 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Chandler Parsons.

Historically, expectations for players drafted at this point are relatively low. By the time the first round has ended, the goal for most teams is to find a diamond in the rough and very few teams have done so successfully.

Courtesy of NBA.com, let’s take a look at who was drafted 38th overall prior to Parsons:

2010: Andy Rautins
2009: Jon Brockman
2008: Kyle Weaver
2007: Kyrylo Fesenko
2006: Kosta Perovic
2005: Travis Diener
2004: Chris Duhon
2003: Steve Blake

Even for the avid NBA fan, most of these names are unfamiliar and for good reason. From 2005-10, the players picked 38th have started a combined total of 57 games, the same number of games Parsons started in his rookie season alone.

All of that to say, when the Rockets drafted Parsons, while they certainly hoped to get a player that would contribute, their expectations were probably not very high.

However, as Parsons’ career progresses, a diamond in the rough may be exactly what the Rockets have found.

After being named to the All-Rookie Second Team in 2012, Parsons came into the 2012-13 season as only one of two players the Rockets retained over the summer and his production this past season was everything Houston could have hoped for plus some.

With Parsons performance over the past two seasons, his contract that, per Hoopsworld, paid him a mere $888,250 this past season, was quite the bargain. The Rockets seem to have struck salary-cap gold since they only owe Parsons a total of $1.9 million over the next two years.

While this might create some difficult decisions for the Rockets regarding Parsons and their cap room, for now, the Rockets seem to have one of the best contracts in the league in Parsons.

But has Parsons’ ceiling been reached or does this 24-year-old have even more room to grow into a star in the NBA?

Last season, Parsons averaged 15.5 points, 3.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game and while his free throw percentage, 73 percent, isn’t superb, it’s something that he is working on and has shown he is capable of improving as it went up 18 percent from last season.

Parsons has developed into a legitimate threat from beyond the arc this past season. In a game against the Mavericks this season, Parsons was 12-for-13 from the field, and 6-for-7 from behind the arc and finished with 32 points.

Only one other player in the last three seasons has ever put on a performance like this.

While nobody would argue that Parsons is the next LeBron, his ability to produce at this level during times in his career seems to indicate that Parsons has the potential to be more than just the average NBA player.

During the playoffs, Parsons carried the Rockets to a victory in Game 4 when he scored 27 points, dished out eight assists and snagged 10 rebounds.

On a Rockets team that lacked a traditional power forward, and loved to space the court out with the 3-point shot, the 6’9” Parsons saw a lot of playing time as a stretch 4.

Whether or not Parsons will be able become a star will depend on a few factors.

One question that remains unanswered is whether or not Parsons will be able to develop a post game that will allow him to continue to fill the role of power forward, assuming the Rockets do not use free agency to fill this hole in their roster.

According to Synergy, Parsons only posted up 1.2 percent of the time while on offense. If Parsons were to embrace his role as power forward, it would behoove him to take a leaf from the book of Carmelo Anthony, whose style of play is similar to Parsons. Anthony is not only an adroit shooter from deep, but also possesses the ability to post up on his defender, as he did 20.8 percent of the time last season.

Parsons does, however, possess the kind of athleticism that greatly benefits the Rockets fast-paced offense.

On the offensive side of the ball, Parsons ability to cut to the basket where he averaged 1.29 points per possession on these plays, as well as his ability to score in transition, where he averaged 1.21 points per possession, indicates that he is capable of being an offensive catalyst.

Another area Parsons will need to improve if he is to become a star is his defense.

For the past few seasons, the Rockets defense has left much to be desired. In the past, Parsons has shown flashes of superb defense.

Whether or not Parsons will be able to defend at this level consistently remains to be seen, and will play a large role in determining his ability to emerge as a star.

Last season, Parsons allowed 0.78 points per possession when defending against the isolation, and 0.7 when guarding the ball-handler off the pick-and-roll. However, in his rookie season, Parsons only allowed 0.65 points per possession against the isolation, so perhaps this difference can be explained by McHale’s decision to employ an offensive strategy that focuses on the wings releasing in hopes of that leading to points in transition.

Regardless, Parsons certainly has room to improve defensively, but with his athleticism and work during the offseason, this is not an impossible objective.

Those cynical of Parsons potential for stardom contend that Parsons breakout should be attributed to the arrival of Harden, which has allowed Parsons to play with far less defensive attention focused on him.

While Harden undoubtedly takes pressure off of Parsons on offense, this should not preclude Parsons from being considered a star if he is able to continue to improve in the aforementioned areas. The presence of one star does not then entail that another player, if he performs at a high level on a consistent basis, cannot also be a star.

Take James Harden and last year’s Oklahoma City team for example.

Harden flourished in an offensive system where the majority of defensive focus was on Westbrook and Durant, however when Harden was asked to become the go-to guy for the Rockets, he proved to be more than just an offensive spark off the bench.

While it remains to be seen if Parsons is capable of doing what Harden did, he’s proven that he is quite capable of being a volume scorer, as evidenced by his 22 games in which he scored 20+ points. Playing alongside Harden undoubtedly helps Parsons, but even when Harden has failed to show up offensively, as he did in Game 4 of the playoffs, Parsons has picked up the slack.

Parsons isn’t the face of the Houston Rockets, unless you’re a teenage (or, perhaps, older) girl

but he has become quite the offensive complement to Harden and the run-and-gun Houston Rockets.

Nobody is asking Parsons to be the number one option at this point in his career. However, if that were to be asked of Parsons at some point, by diversifying his game offensively and improving on the defensive end of the ball, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that he could flourish into an All-Star during his very promising career.