Milwaukee Bucks: How Will The Starting Five Look?

Jabari Parker

For Jabari Parker, this is a huge season coming up. After tearing his ACL in his rookie year, he bounced back quite well in 2015-2016, but this is the year for him to take the leap up to the next level.

With Khris Middleton out, Parker will be called on to form a dynamic duo with Giannis Antetokounmpo. With the athleticism and talent that both of them possess, they have the opportunity to start something special in Milwaukee.

Last season, Parker finished with 14.1 points per game. Although this doesn’t look like a staggering number for the second-year player, his statistics after the All-Star break were. Post All-Star break, Parker averaged 18.9 points per game and started to knock down the three with some consistency. He is still a very young player, but this is the time to make that jump.

Strengths

Clearly Parker’s major strength is his outstanding ability to score. Despite losing much of his rookie season due to an ACL injury, Parker made the jump from college ball to the NBA very well. With that injury, one could argue that his first season was basically a redshirt and his true rookie season was this past year.

With that, the Chicago native should bring his scoring numbers up by a substantial amount this season. His combination of an excellent mid-range game along with his ferocious attacking of the basket is exciting to even the casual fan.

Parker also possesses a tremendous fearlessness when he attacks the rack. Take this dunk, for example, where he leaves the ground knowing exactly what he wants to do:

Yeah, put that one on your wall.

Weaknesses

The first major weakness in Parker’s game, however, comes on the defensive end of the floor. He struggled mightily on defense for a few reasons.

There were multiple times throughout last season where you could see Parker was lost, almost oblivious to where he should have been. Either he missed a switch or took a chance on a steal that was just too late. These faults, however, are things that are improved with time and practice.

Jabari is still extremely young and defense is not always something that comes easily. He has all the physical tools of height and size to match-up either on the wing against small forwards or down low with some power forwards. He is still going through a learning phase on defense, but it will help him to be in a lineup with good defenders like Giannis, Delly, and Miles Plumlee.

Other than his defense, Jabari’s offensive game can be improved by stepping out behind the arc more often. He shot a disappointing 25.7 percent from three last season, but he also attempted only 35. If he worked hard on his shot in the offseason, as many people are alluding to him doing, Parker’s confidence and percentages from distance should rise up. That would certainly help the Bucks as a whole.