Milwaukee Bucks: It’s Jabari Parker’s Time
By Dan Larsen
After struggling to find his footing for much of the season, Jabari Parker is finally finding his place on this Milwaukee Bucks team.
It’s been a roller coaster couple of months for Jabari Parker. Though he’s had some moments of brilliance, Parker has generally struggled to live up to the high sky expectations that many had for him coming into the season.
Instead of emerging as one of the team’s premier scoring options, Parker has often found himself relegated to being only a fourth or fifth option on offense, getting frozen out for long stretches of games. When you factor in his struggles on the defensive end, it makes for a somewhat disappointing start to his NBA career.
Parker’s early season struggles set off a panic among critics and fans alike. Zach Lowe, when dissecting what was wrong with the Milwaukee Bucks back in January, discussed many of the struggles Parker was running into, pointing out that the long-term viability of a Antetokounmpo-Parker-Monroe trio may not be there.
In more recent games, however, Parker has begun to make a more significant impact. Over his past ten games, Parker is averaging 14.1 points and 6.8 boards on a solid 52.2% of the field. In his past five games, his results are event better, averaging 16 points and 8.0 boards per game. It finally appears that the Bucks are getting their second overall pick more involved, and the move is starting to pay significant dividends.
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Much of the flack Parker has received this season has been unfair.
It was only 15 months ago that Parker tore his ACL, one of the most catastrophic injuries any player can go through. However, despite suffering a devastating knee injury, Parker has not lost any of his pre-injury athleticism and he’s getting to the rim with relative ease.
Parker’s defensive struggles are also easy to explain. Parker played most of his college tenure as a small ball center for Duke. Thus, he spent most of his time guarding players who were slower than he was, never really learning how to stay in front of quicker players. This has helped make Parker’s transition at the NBA level that much more difficult. What most guys would have gotten a taste of at the college level, Parker did not. Also, there are few young players who are elite on both ends of the floor.
It’s also no surprise that a 20-year-old player has had his fair share of struggles. With the rare exception of a LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony, most players, even stars, have trouble finding consistency on a nightly basis, especially at such a young age.
In his more recent games, Parker has begun to take on bigger share of responsibility on the offensive end. For many stretches of games earlier in the season, Parker would struggle to get more than ten shots on a nightly basis. Out of those baskets, most were either in transition or on cuts to lane when his defender left him too much space.
Over his past five games, however, Parker has taken 11 or more shots four times, including 19 against Charlotte and 21 against Atlanta. His touches have increased, and he’s beginning to make the most of chances.
Though his game against Charlotte consisted of taking advantage of an awful defender in Frank Kaminsky, Parker began to show flashes of the expansive game he showed as a Freshman at Duke.
Unlike earlier in the season, Parker was actually taking step back jumpers around the top of the key and hitting them with relative ease. It was his positioning and growing confidence in his game which allowed him to score a career high 23 points. The more shots he hit, the bigger force he became on the offensive end.
Parker’s career high of 23, however, was short lived. He followed up his career best game with an even greater performance against a respectable Atlanta Hawks squad on Saturday night. Like his performance against Charlotte, the majority of his buckets came while driving towards the basket. However, something was beginning to click for him that wasn’t earlier in the season. He’s just beginning to figure out how to pick apart slower defenders:
Unlike earlier in the season, when the majority of his baskets came in transition or off instances where his defender stopped focusing on him, Parker is beginning to realize just how much of a mis-match he can be against other power forwards. Few guys at that position have the athletic ability to stay in front of him, and his strength when driving enables him to finish on a consistent basis. Thus, despite whatever limitations Parker may have defensively, he has more than enough tools to out-match just about any other power forward in league, something he’s just starting to figure out.
Parker’s last two games are very reminiscent of the run of games Giannis Antetokounmpo had last season. Like Parker, Antetokounmpo was struggling to score consistently on a nightly basis early on. However, once the Bucks began to get hot, so did Antetokounmpo, who posted some of his career best performances in February and March, including a memorable performance against the New York Knicks. It was those games that began to show us just how good Antetokounmpo could become:
Keeping Parker as involved as he has been the past few games should be the primary focus for this Bucks team for the remainder of the season. Unlike anyone else on the team, Parker possesses a unique skill set which should allow him to blossom into a first or very good second scoring option.
Many of his baskets already come from great positioning and reactions. Unlike many other guys on the team, like Greg Monroe, who sometimes struggle with figuring out where to be on offense, Parker already possesses great instincts and IQ. It’s a large part of the reason why Parker is shooting such an efficient percentage on the season.
In addition, his comfort level with his step back jumper is beginning to come around as well. A large part of Parker’s arsenal in college was his ability to create his own shot from 12-15 feet from the basket, rising up and hitting jumpers over smaller defenders. Though it’s taken much of the season for him to get his legs back under him, Parker is finally finding the elusive touch on his jumper, getting enough elevation and developing enough confidence in his ability to finally do damage.
One final bonus to Parker’s game has been his leadership both on and off the court. As he’s begun to become more comfortable on the floor, he’s began to take on a more vocal presence, trying to keep things in check when tempers are boiling over. Parker is the model professional, and his cool temperament and hustle makes him the most likely candidate to be the team’s leader. In a year where communication and leadership have been lacking, it’s encouraging to see the team’s potential star embracing his role as the heart and sole of this team and this city.
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As the past couple of games have shown, Parker can be a force when he’s full of confidence and getting significant touches on the offensive end. And with the playoffs looking like they’re far out of reach, seeing Parker continuing to improve on a nightly basis isn’t a bad consolation prize.