Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Chandler Parsons or Chase Budinger?

In watching the Houston Rockets lose tonight to the Milwaukee Bucks, a question occured to me: Why is Chandler Parsons playing so much instead of Chase Budinger? Budinger started the year in the starting 5, and has since been relegated to towel-waving sub in recent games. In looking at their stats, they seem to be much the same. So what's the difference in these two Caucasian forwards whose first names start with "C-H-A"?

Here are some of John Hollinger's PER stats on both players (PER is adjusted on a per-minute basis):

Chase Budinger, 6'7'', 3rd year
20.7 minutes/game
51% field goal percentage
9.5 assists/game
7.9 turnovers/game
8.6 rebounds/game
11.44 PER

Chandler Parsons, 6'9'', Rookie
23 minutes/game
48.6% field goal percentage
16.2 assists/game
8.8 turnovers/game
13.7 rebounds/game
14.66 PER

What's the difference between the two? And what has pushed Parsons into "starter" status?

First, Parsons passes more without costing much in terms of turnovers. Watching Budinger, he sees himself at the receiver of passes - and once he gets the ball, he's looking to score more often than not. That's not necessarily a bad thing; lots of players (cough Kobe cough) operate better within their team (cough cough Melo) when they're "the guy". However, unfortunately for Budinger, the Rockets already have one of those (ahem...Kevin Martin). As far as Parsons is concerned, he seems just as happy to set someone up as he is to shoot the ball. He hustles around the court, and he just gets open due to that relentless motor.

The other main difference between "Chandler Bang" and "Bud"'s stats is the rebounding rate. Parsons is two inches taller than Budinger, but Parsons knows how to make his size a huge deal when he's playing inside (offensive or defensively). CP plays like a power forward with the athleticism of a shooting guard. Budinger plays like the key is made of hot lava - he lives on the wings, and then only ventures inside on his patent-pending baseline dunks. He plays like a shooting guard with the size of a small forward.

One last comment on Parsons: in this, his rookie season, it feels like he's completely unaware of the stakes. He's playing like a 10-year old on a youth basketball team: hustling everywhere, taking the ball up the court on occasion, doing his post-game interviews with an orange-peel-smile. One of those may actually have been made up. However, this obliviousness is just making Parsons play with a joy and carefree air that makes him already one of the more clutch players on the team. Hopefully he can keep that aspect of his game up throughout his career.

All told, I think that Coach Kevin McHale is riding the hot hand, since Parsons has been on fire recently. However, for the reasons stated above, I think the right move is to keep playing Parsons as much as possible. He brings a relentless character to this Rockets team that they'll need to imitate if they hope to go far in the playoffs this season. Thankfully we can't get matched up with the Bucks until the Finals.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Bucket List

I love lists. In a typical day, I'll make a dozen different lists that fit whatever I'm thinking and doing for that day. My mom says I do this because I have an analytical mind. I tell her that she's analyzing me by saying that - but I mean...I'd agree with her.

The thing about lists, in general, is this: each item on a list is inherently begging, SCREAMING to be checked off. My freshman year English teacher, Mrs. Shank (the best English teacher I've ever had), told our class that when you make a list, you should make the tasks achievable because checking off a task is an emotional boost. This "bucket list" flies in the face of that advice, to a degree, but my reasoning is as follows: every item on this list is set up to be a kind of "life achievement award," not something flippant like a to-do list for a Saturday. With each task I (hopefully) eliminate from this list, the feeling is that it is a significant milestone being passed. How apt is that description to my list? Eh, some of these goals are altogether too lofty. But I'm not making a bucket list that I want to complete - I hope to have plenty to work on throughout my life.

One last clarification, I wrote this list in spurts, as things popped into my head. I'm basically publishing this to display my inner dialogue - plus, I have way too many notes saved on my iphone, let's be honest. So this list is very "stream of consciousness," and is only edited to clarify my own personal short-hand.

So without further ado, here is my "list of things to do before you kick the bucket" (thank you Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson):

- Run with the bulls in Pamplona Spain
- Live in manhattan
- Do stand-up comedy
- Get a pilots license
- Go to Coachella/SXSW/ACL
- Be a general manager of an MLB team
- Travel to every continent (as an adult)
- Learn an Asian language
- Learn Italian
- Run a marathon
- Run a half-marathon
- Run a 10k
- Run a 5k
- Bungee jump
- Witness the Northern Lights
- Write a book
- Take dance lessons of some sort (to proficiency)
- Watch The Wire
- Watch The Sopranos
- Watch Lost
- Visit Boston
- Go to all 30 MLB stadiums
- Go to the Super Bowl
- Go to the BCS national championship game
- Go to all 4 tennis opens
- Go to The Masters
- Learn how to bake something good from someone else's homemade recipe
- Go to Hawaii
- Go to Old Trafford and see Man U play
- Read all the way through the Bible
- Read a book in its native language
- Release an album of original songs
- Successfully complete the gallon challenge
- Eat the Big Texan dinner in Amarillo
- Climb mount Kilimanjaro
- Go white water rafting
- Break a Guinness world record
- Learn to drive a motorcycle
- Machu Picchu
- See the cherry blossom festival in Washington DC
- Go on a date with Rachel mcadams
- Mardi Gras in New Orleans
- Solve a Rubiks cube
- Get a degree from Stanford
- Get a degree from Harvard
- Read all of Shakespeare
- Read all of Sherlock Holmes
- Watch all of the James Bond movies
- Watch all of the Oscar Best Picture Award winners

Monday, January 23, 2012

Taking Down Dos Lobos

Tonight, the Houston Rockets took their 6-game winning streak into the Target Center in Minneapolis. This season, the Rockets have been equal parts Jekyll and Hyde when they are at home or away, respectively. At home in the Toyota Center, the hometown boys are 7-1, while on the road they came into the night sporting an abysmal 2-6 record. So taking on Minnesota in the (Timber)wolves' den is just what the Rockets needed to transfer their home success to the road as well.

Houston controlled most of the game, although Minny had a couple dangerous runs that even gave them a lead in the middle of the 3rd quarter. However, Houston ended up winning 107-92. With the win, the Rockets improve to 10-7 while the Wolves drop to 7-10. The Rockets key performer probably was Kyle "Mr. Triple-Double" Lowry, who provided 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Kevin Martin was no slouch, finishing with 31 points of his own.

The Wolves are basically a band of merry men surrounding their All-Star/All-World/All-Universe power forward Kevin Love, who finished with 39 points and 12 rebounds. He is relentless on the boards, especially offensively, and his inclusion of a 3-pointer into his game mixes low and high extremely well. As for the sidekicks, this year has been a kind of culmination for lots of Minnesota General Manager David Khan's experiments: namely 2011 #2 overall pick Derrick Williams out of Arizona and the #5 overall pick from the 2009 draft Ricky Rubio. As this is Rubio's first year coming to the NBA from his native Spain, the effect on Minnesota is having two Top-5 picks added to your team in the same year.

The aforementioned newcomers are playing well: the wildly-popular Rubio (1/2 of Minnesota's "Dos Lobos" Spanish contigent, along with injured guard J.J. Barea) is making his mark in the league as a distributor and good defensive player, while Williams really needs to look no further than teammate Michael Beasley to model his game as an offensive-minded wingman. As the year goes on, Minnesota can look to continue to build the rapport of their young nucleus of Love/Rubio/Williams and hopefully bring great chemistry down the stretch of this year and into next season. They have room to grow, but as was evident in large stretches tonight, these Timberwolves aren't playing very well.

So what does this win say about the Rockets? The importance of a road win cannot be understated, especially coming off of an emotional win against the rival San Antonio Spurs. The triple-double by Lowry serves as an announcement to the league, a coming-out party of sorts, that K-Low is here and he is one of the best point guards in the world. Kevin Martin keeps proving that he can score anywhere and everywhere, even though his insistence on shooting fast-break 3's continually makes me nauseous regardless of how many he makes. Samuel Dalembert has really made his own niche as a rebounder, cleaning up the glass on both ends of the court. Also, his innate sense of shotblocking is a key to the Rockets' defense.

From watching Houston play for much of this season, it is my opinion that these are the Rockets' two best lineups. First, the "normal" lineup that should be used throughout the course of the game consists of center Dalembert, power forward Luis Scola, small forward (rookie!) Chandler Parsons, shooting guard Martin, and point guard Lowry. In crunch time, however, a smaller lineup is really paying dividends by allowing both of H-Town's dynamic point guards to get some key minutes: "center" Patrick Patterson, and then guards Lowry, Goran Dragic, Courtney Lee, and Martin. These two lineups have been playing incredibly well, and it has been a big part of the Rockets' current 7-game winning streak.

With the win, the Rockets now move into the 8-seed in the Western Conference. Who's next?! That would be the Milwaukee Bucks, who travel to Houston to try to steal a win at the Toyota Center tomorrow night.

Friday, January 13, 2012

The Boys Are Back!

Tonight, the Houston Rockets defeated the Sacramento Kings, 103-91. With the win, the Rockets improve to 4-7 on the season, while the Kings fall to 4-8. The Rockets and Kings are the 12th- and 13th-seeded teams in the NBA's Western Conference, far from being current playoff contenders. So this begs the question: who cares? Well obviously, I do. And so should you, if you're a Rockets fan.

The Rockets played well. Really well. And I believe that this is the blueprint for future Rockets success. With the current roster, all the pieces are in place for Houston to make a run at a playoff spot - they just need to consistently replicate the model of tonight's game.

The defense played pretty well, getting a big inside presence from Samuel Dalembert and his season-high 4 blocks. With Luis Scola's inability to challenge shots vertically, Dalembert should play a big role for the Rockets as the anchor of their defense.

Kyle Lowry is proving himself to be one of the better point guards in the league. Mr. "Near-Triple-Double" fills out every aspect of the stat sheet, and the rest of the team takes after his hard-nosed, hustle style of play.

Luis Scola had everything going through him on the offensive end. This helped in two ways: by giving the ball to Scola in the high post area, he can easily kick it out to any open teammate if/when a double-team comes; and if no double-team comes, Scola can go to any of the Bill Worrell-patented "Ice Cream Man" scoop shots that his post game consists of.

Kevin Martin is doing the things that Kevin Martin should. He's an underrated shooting guard in the NBA, and he adds more offensively than he takes away on the defensive end. Chase Budinger mixes in sharpshooting on the 3-point line with an ability to elevate and aggressively slash to the basket, and the whole package comes together very nicely.

Chandler Parsons has been astounding, honestly. The rookie has played as a Chase Budinger-wannabe, and is acted the part in spades recently. He can shoot a fair amount of 3's, and then his size allows him to play inside also on defense.

On the bench, Goran Dragic, Terrence Williams, and Patrick Patterson are playing well enough to contribute to Houston's success. Then, anything that Jordan Hill, Jonny Flynn, and former D-Leaguers Hasheem Thabeet (ha!) and Jeff Adrien can add in random games will only be gravy that adds to the Rockets' inevitable postseason push.

If the Houston Rockets are smart, they'll use this seemingly-innocuous game on the schedule as their plan for the rest of the season. If they do, they'll make the 2012 NBA playoffs - write it down!