There is reportedly ‘no chance’ that forward Chandler Parsons will return to the Dallas Mavericks, which further opens the door for the Lakers
The day before the start of 2016 NBA free agency was not kind to the Los Angeles Lakers. It seemed like it was one big-name free agent after another that either wasn’t giving the Lakers the time of day or that didn’t seem all that interested but were giving LA a courtesy. However, forward Chandler Parsons was arguably the one positive thing to come out of Thursday.
Early on June 30, reports began to surface that the Lakers were being considered one of the suitors to sign Parsons in free agency. Those reports continued to look valid and only became more interesting as the day went on.
Now making things even more interesting for both the free agent forward and for the Lakers is the fact that it’s not being reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN that the Dallas Mavericks have no intention of re-signing Parsons, saying there’s “no chance” that happens:
Source on possibility of Chandler Parsons returning to Dallas: "No chance."
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) June 30, 2016
Clearly this opens the door for the Lakers to come in and have a viable shot at signing the free agent forward considering that it seems more than unlikely he won’t be re-signing.
However, you have to wonder if the fact that the Mavericks are already saying “no thank you” in regards to re-signing Parsons should send up red flags for the Lakers.
As Nate Duncan of The Cauldron and the Dunc’d On podcast pointed out, Dallas is the team most familiar with the recently oft-injured forward’s medical records and they were unwilling to offer a max contract or even want to negotiate:
Worth noting if Dallas, which is most familiar with Parsons' health situation, isn't offering him the max he'd likely have stayed for.
— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) June 30, 2016
That’s certainly not a great sign for the Lakers and one that they should probably heed going forward in the free agency process.
Next: Lakers: 5 Cheap Targets in Free Agency
Obviously free agency hasn’t even officially begun just yet, but the Parsons-Lakers rumblings are already heating up. Let’s hope, though, that these failure to get meetings and so on don’t cause LA to do something irrational and ultimately unwise.