Over his entire stint with the Grizzlies, Chandler Parsons has been the focus of much consternation. Both the quality of his play (which has ranged from “decent” to “below G-League level”) and his contract (which has steadily rated as a 10/10 on the albatross scale) are sore points for Grizzlies fans.
I don’t blame Parsons for these things. First off, it’s not like he decided to get injured and become useless. If you asked him I’m sure he would say that he wishes he was playing better, that he’s sick of seeing a sub-30% number for his field goal percentage, and that he is training his butt off to get back into game shape. Second off, it’s not like he’s the one who decided to pay himself so much money. That’s totally on the Grizzlies for paying a guy who was one tier below “fringe All-Star” a max contract to be part of a “big three” with Marc Gasol and Mike Conley. Even the best possible version of Parsons would be hard-pressed to live up to that contract, and what we have right now isn’t anywhere close to the best possible version of Parsons. It might actually be the worst version of Parsons.
Okay, that’s not true. If Parsons lost all his limbs in a forklift accident, that would be the worst version of Parsons. At least this version is fully-limbed, relatively mobile, and healthy enough to grow hair and a beard. Going off this game, he still has the ability to hit ultra-flat jumpshots and pass the ball accurately enough to pick up some assists. Those things alone are worth at least one million dollars a year. Now we just have to somehow account for the other 23 million per year that’s he getting paid.
Maybe he brings revenue to the team in the form of additional female fans? Yeah. Let’s go with that.