The Buck Stops Here Roundtable #8: Is Giannis an All-Star Lock?

Advanced metrics haven’t agreed with Jabari Parker so far this season. How would you grade his performance to date? Are you concerned about his defensive analytics?

Tom: We all knew Jabari had a long way to go defensively when he was drafted. That really hasn’t changed much. His awareness on that end of the court leaves much to be desired, and I still cringed a little bit every time I saw him matched up on DeMar DeRozan on the perimeter. With that said, I like the effort and energy he continues to bring on defense, and the progress that he has made gives me hope that he can continue to progress. If there were no evidence that he cared I would be much more concerned.

Ti: I’m still not very worried. He’s young, and since last season the only expectation I had for Jabari was being healthy I’m still not placing him on any pedestals yet. I do think he’ll get a bit better defensively, but even if he doesn’t there are ways to better mask a bad defender. The Bucks haven’t been using them because I think the team wants to force Jabari to play defense, so they’re going to throw him into the fire and see what happens. It’s a dangerous yet fun experiment, and I’m all for it.

Adam: Jabari is not a good defender. The best we can likely hope for him to be is somewhere within reach of being average on that end of the floor. That means there will likely always be the opportunity to pick out ugly defensive numbers or nitpick with clips where he looks even more lost than usual. On the other hand, Jabari is an incredible offensive player. He’s the best player on the team on that end and it’s not even close. If you don’t believe me, look at how Giannis has struggled in late game situations with the ball in his hands. Jabari is an instinctive offensive talent that won’t necessarily be found all that easily again for the Bucks.

For context, if Jabari was to hold or improve his scoring average through to the end of the season, he’d become only the second player (Marques Johnson) in Milwaukee Bucks history to average 19 points per game aged 21 or younger. You don’t just give up on that, particularly when with everybody fully healthy, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton can be elite defenders alongside him.

With that in mind, he’s better than he was last year, he’s expanding his game and I’ve been really impressed with him so far.

Jordan: It’s very easy to focus on the holes of his game, with defense being chief among them.  If you’ve tuned into all of the games this year or basically since Jabari’s been with the team (and healthy), it’s certainly hard to ignore the mistakes like a lack of awareness or the stop and start activity he shows regularly on that side of the ball.

However, what a lot of people have either not done or choose not to look at are the ways he’s gradually improved his game. His scoring is on par with his post All-Star break numbers last year and we’re seeing a more willing and effective outside shooter this year. I still think his playmaking/creativity with the ball will only follow with that and seeing how he’s handled late game situations has been incredibly encouraging to see.

I know the topic of how he fits in the team’s grand scheme or how he plays next to Giannis will never go away as long as he remains with the team, but I really find it hard to come to any conclusions regarding Jabari with only a year and a half of NBA experience under his belt as well as his recent play coming under a team without a key piece in Khris Middleton for this season.

Lukas: I’m not worried about Jabari. He’s still young, and although that’s not an excuse, analytics aren’t everything. Jabari is clearly a part of our core moving forward and there is no sense worrying about anything this season unless something happens between him and Giannis, which seems highly unlikely.

Jabari is an extremely likable athlete and definitely has the offensive tools to score. As for how he does with certain players or on the defensive end, he has time.

Tim: It’s no secret that Jabari isn’t a great defender. You don’t need advanced metrics to tell you that. Whilst criticism is warranted at times, I feel as though it has steadily blown out of proportion to the point where his proficiency on the offensive end is often ignored in the shadows of Giannis’ outlandish feats.

Currently, Jabari is on track to join only 36 other players in NBA history, aged 21 or younger, to average more than 19 points per game for a season. As Adam mentioned, the Bucks would be foolish to give up on developing this kind of young talent because defensive analytics are in the negative, 124 NBA games into a 21-year-old’s career.