Rick Carlisle reiterates that Chandler Parsons needs to lose weight
Mavs forward Chandler Parsons on his head coach's comments: "His opinion of heavy is different than mine."
•
2 min read
UPDATE: In what was definitely a coincidence, after this story circulated, Chandler Parsons posted a shirtless photo on his Instagram account:
Loading
---
Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle called out Chandler Parsons' conditioning again after Friday's preseason game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Carlisle wants Parsons, who showed up to training camp weighing 235 pounds and said it was so he could play more power forward, to get lighter, via ESPN's Tim McMahon:
"He looked tired out there tonight to me, and his shot is short," Carlisle said. "He's working on losing some weight. He's a little bit heavier than he's been. He's up over 230, and we want to see him get down to at least 225. That's a work in progress, and tonight's one of those nights where I think the extra weight was a hindrance."
…
"His opinion of heavy is different than mine," said Parsons, who was 1-of-6 from 3-point range against the Thunder. "We kind of go at it every day about it. At the end of the day, I respect his opinion. After training camp, my weight fluctuates. I'll get it down."
…
"An increase of 18 to 20 pounds is just too much," Carlisle said. "We talked about it today. We talk about it a lot. He'll get there. He'll get there, but he looked tired out there and a little heavy-legged, and the extra 7 or 8 pounds aren't helping.
"I don't mean to call him out in public or ridicule him, but it's just a fact. He's an important guy for us. We just need him to get to his right conditioning and weight level so he can play his best, because we're going to need him to play a lot of minutes over the course of 82 games."
Carlisle joked about Parsons on media day, saying, "One man's bulking up is another man's not quite in shape yet." What he said this time was a bit more pointed, but he's just being honest. Gaining weight can be helpful for some players, but if it's slowing Parsons down and affecting his shot, it might not have been the best move. He's also going to play a lot more at small forward than power forward because of the presence of Dirk Nowitzki.
In related news, Sacramento Kings forward Rudy Gay recently said that his extra muscle held him back at the beginning of last season. He had gotten bigger to play more stretch 4 with the Toronto Raptors, but had the worst shooting stretch of his career before being traded to Sacramento. He took a different approach this past summer, and said he now feels like a guard.
Anyway, players naturally drop a few pounds throughout the course of the season and Parsons has enough time to get to where Carlisle wants him before opening night. This shouldn't be a huge issue. It's a bit weird, though, that the NBA's resident model is the one whose weight we're discussing.
