Mark Cuban: Chandler Parsons can help on defense and with minutes

The Dallas Mavericks landed their man in Chandler Parsons when the Houston Rockets declined to match the offer sheet. One thing the Parsons signing has done, has allowed for the Mavericks to get younger and Parsons proved with the Rockets that he is capable of playing a lot of minutes. Last year Parsons averaged 37.6 minutes per game, a mark that was sixth best in the league.

“He’s the old Nellie (Don Nelson) point-forward, personified,” Cuban said, via ESPN Dallas. “It gets us younger. The good news about all of the experience we had, it really allowed us to modify and give the Spurs a run for their money last year. The bad news is that we had to restrict minutes. Restricting minutes was the big challenge.

“He’s a guy that we can keep out there a lot longer. With Vince (Carter), ‘Trix (Shawn Marion) and Dirk (Nowitzki), we really had to balance minutes.”

The Mavericks are also trying to get better on defense, something they brought back Tyson Chandler to help with. Cuban thinks Chandler can contribute on that end of the floor as well.

“He’s a willing defender,” Cuban said. “One of the reasons I went after him, one of the things I did, I went and talked to all of the scorers that I know and I asked who defended them the best and list the top three and Chandler was on the list a few times. He’s not a shutdown defender, but he’s a work-hard defender. He’s an irritant.

“I think Coach [Rick Carlisle] will do a lot better job with stances, coach will get on him. We do a lot of drills for the little stuff like that.”