Chandler Parsons out for season, likely to undergo knee surgery
The Dallas Mavericks season may well be on life support after they pulled the plug on forward Chandler Parsons season on Wednesday.
The Mavericks announced that Parsons will miss the remainder of the season, and he's exploring surgical options for his injured right knee. Parsons had been ruled out for the rest of the first round earlier Wednesday but a re-evaluation led to the team shutting him down entirely.
This comes at the same time that Dallas ruled point guard Rajon Rondo out indefinitely. Down 2-0 to the Houston Rockets and appearing to have little idea how to turn things around, the Mavericks' season may be over in short order.
Parsons appeared in Game 1 following a six-game absence to end the regular season, scoring 10 points with six rebounds in 37 minutes. Whether he returned too early or aggravated the injury is unclear, but Parsons didn't look his usual self in that outing and it seems possible he tried to gut it out for a playoff game despite not being 100 percent.
In 66 games this season, his first with Dallas, Parsons averaged 15.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists, shooting 46.2 percent from the floor and 38 percent from long range. While he's not an all-world defender, he's Dallas' lone wing who doesn't take something away on one end of the floor, and the team was 2.1 points per-100 possessions better with him on the court this year.
The 26-year-old has two years remaining on his contract, the second a player option.