Confident Chandler Parsons Finally Playing Up to Expectations

Chandler Parsons is finally starting to put it all together for the Dallas Mavericks, and the rest of the league should take heed.

Think about this: the Mavericks were able to jump out to a 12-5 record through Parsons’ first seventeen games in Dallas with their big free agent acquisition scoring 14.2 points on a paltry 41% shooting. He looked out of sorts, unsure of how he fit in with the offense, and working mostly as a spot-up shooter.

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That just isn’t his game. But it appears that things have changed, and it all starts with Parsons. He’s made a concerted effort to be more aggressive as of late, putting the ball on the floor, moving well without the ball and running the floor hard in transition.

Struggling shooters are often able to turn things around just by getting to the free throw line and seeing the ball go through the hoop. The same rings true for getting easy buckets, and Chandler has been able to do that by moving better when the ball isn’t in his hands.

Take his last game in Milwaukee for example. It was his best game in a Maverick uniform and he started out by getting several easy baskets early. He started by cutting baseline to receive a pass from Monta Ellis and get to the free throw line. Then he fooled former-Maverick OJ Mayo with his patented elongated shot fake and hit a runner in the lane. Soon after that he scored back-to-back transition buckets in the span of a minute.

He went on to hit four of his six three-point attempts en route to 28 points in three quarters. Coincidence? Parsons doesn’t think so. He told reporters after the game, “I got a couple of easy ones early and I think when that happens you gain confidence, and it just seems like you can throw a lot of things in there. My teammates did a great job finding me.”

Parsons has indeed looked more confident lately for the Mavericks, and it could spell doom for opponents. In his last five games he’s scoring 19 points on 38% shooting from downtown and 47% overall. Dallas is 4-1 in that stretch, averaging 116 points per contest.

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