Parsons out at least another week as bad news piles up for Grizzlies
Memphis Grizzlies forward Chandler Parsons is still recuperating from a left knee bone bruise and will be out of action for at least another week, the team announced Friday.
Parsons was originally ruled out for two weeks on Nov. 20, and, while it is still early in the season, Friday's news can't be viewed as positive in any way for the Grizzlies. The team is already beginning to show frightening similarities to last year's decimated squad, which lost more than 300 man games to injury and rostered an NBA-record 28 players.
In addition to team engine Mike Conley being out six weeks with a vertebrae fracture, Parsons has only played in six of Memphis' 20 games so far. Signing the 6-foot-10 combo forward with the boy-band looks was the Grizzlies' first-ever major outside free-agent signing, and, combined with Conley, represented approximately $248 million in salary the franchise committed to this summer.
Perhaps comforting - or alarming, depending on the viewpoint - is Parsons' injury is to the left knee, not the right one that ended his last two seasons with the Dallas Mavericks prematurely.
While the Grizzlies have proven to be one of the most resilient teams in the NBA over the last few seasons, what remains concerning is the risk/reward nature of the Parsons signing.
While it's still early, the risk side is winning and Mavs owner Mark Cuban appears prescient to have not given Parsons a long-term deal.
Furthermore, the signing of Parsons was also envisioned as a re-imagination of the Grizzlies longtime plodding offense - one that consistently ranked near the bottom of the league in 3-point attempts and percentage. The 28-year-old, when in good health, brings an ability to spread the floor and also act as a facilitator. Instead, in six rusty games, he's averaged 7.7 points, three rebounds, and less than one assist on sub-40 percent field goal shooting.
The Grizzlies will be hoping Friday's news is correct - that Parsons will be close to a go when he's re-evaluated in 7-10 days. In the meantime, all he wants for Christmas is two healthy knees.