Don’t blame Chandler Parsons for taking this shot
He was open on this game-winning attempt that missed, and the seemingly open swing pass to Monta Ellis wasn’t actually open.
The NBA is back, which means it’s time to nitpick late-game situations like the one you see in this picture. This is Chandler Parsons’ game-winning attempt in the closing seconds against the Spurs. The shot missed, giving the Spurs a 101-100 victory.
As you can see, teammate Monta Ellis is wide open at the top of the key. Parsons conceivably could have swung the ball and given his teammate a cleaner look that theoretically would have a better shot at going in.
Except ... yeah, this is silly for two reasons.
1. Parsons had an open shot
Rewind to three-tenths of a second sooner, when Parsons actually began his shooting motion.
This is the split second in which Parsons must make his decision, if not sooner. At this point, he has a clean look and Boris Diaw is lurking in the passing lane against Ellis. Of course the passing lane ends up looking open a few tenths of a second later because Diaw is rushing to Parsons knowing he’s already in his shooting motion. In reality, it wasn’t actually an easy pass. There’d be plenty of uproar if Diaw deflected the pass and the Mavericks didn’t even get a shot off.
But more importantly ...
2. There wasn’t much time on the shot clock
Again, with emphasis:
In theory, that’s enough time to make the pass. In practice, it’s asking a whooooollllllle lot of a player to pass up an open shot in this situation to swing the ball. If the pass gets through Diaw, Ellis probably catches the ball with close to a second remaining, so he needs to rush the attempt to get it off before the shot clock expires. A rushed open shot isn’t even really an open shot at all.
Also consider: the Mavericks didn’t call a timeout in this situation. This turned out to be an advantage because the Spurs’ defense was confused enough to yield the shot to Parsons in the first place, but it also means that Rick Carlisle didn’t get the chance to diagram a formation and tell Parsons to look for an open Ellis when the ball is swung. Given the situation, taking the shot was the only option.
It’s easy to bag on Parsons because his Mavericks’ debut was so poor (2-for-10 from the field, five points), but criticizing him for shooting in this situation isn’t fair.
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