Milwaukee Bucks Twitter Mailbag: Is Jabari Parker An All-Star?

In our latest Milwaukee Bucks Twitter Mailbag, Tim Wray evaluates Jabari Parker‘s All-Star case, discusses the Bucks’ Point Guard situation, reflects on Khris Middleton‘s absence and much more.

The Milwaukee Bucks Twitter Mailbag is back for another week!

As we’ve done in the past, this weekly mailbag post will run in addition to the one featured on the Win in 6 Podcast in order to connect even further with the Behind the Buck Pass readership.

This week, whilst I was manning the @BehindTheBucks Twitter handle during the Bucks wire-to-wire victory over the Miami Heat (which moved Milwaukee into 5th place in the East), I opened the floor to all your best Bucks questions, thoughts, trade suggestions, bold predictions, or just anything you had on your mind (loosely) related to basketball.

If you happened to miss out this week and have a burning Bucks question, be sure to follow @BehindTheBucks on Twitter to keep an eye out for the Win in 6 Podcast mailbag on Sunday or to submit questions for this write-up on either Thursday or Friday nights, usually following games.

Now, let’s get to the questions!

Jabari Parker currently sits ninth (Giannis is second) in the Eastern Conference Frontcourt after the second round of voting returns, so his chances of starting the All-Star Game look incredibly unlikely at this stage (Keep sending out those #NBAVote Tweets!), even factoring in the 25 percent players and media vote. Evidently, Jabari’s best chance of making it to New Orleans is to be selected by NBA coaches as an All-Star reserve.

For me, as much as Jabari has improved this season, notably his jump from 14.1 to 20.8 points per game and the utterly remarkable spike in three-point percentage from 25.7 percent to 42.1 percent on three more attempts from behind the arc per game, I just don’t think he has as compelling an All-Star case as other established stars, particularly in the Eastern frontcourt. Whilst Jabari certainly deserves to be included in this conversation, I can’t see a majority of coaches voting for him over the likes of Jimmy Butler, Paul George and Paul Millsap, especially with so many Eastern Conference Guards worthy of All-Star selection.

Hopefully I’m dead wrong, but I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Jabari will be an All-Star in the future.

As I wrote last week, I don’t think the Bucks are in the position where they are prepared, required or realistically have valuable (enough) assets to make any worthwhile personnel changes at the trade deadline.

With a rotation of Brogdon and Dellavedova, adding in Giannis’ ability to run the point when necessary, the Bucks aren’t in drastic need of an upgrade (realistic) at the point guard position this season. It may be a position of need in the long-term which the franchise may look towards finding an answers through the draft, however having just hit the second-round jackpot with “President Guard” Malcolm Brogdon, they might not need to worry.

Completely impractical, but If the Bucks could get George Hill…

To answer your second question, a hot dog is a hot dog. A sausage sandwich is a sandwich (or, the ‘Aussie Taco’ as one supermarket puts it).

Alright, can’t say that I’ve been keeping up with the top college prospects and mock drafts so far this season (I’ll probably get into it closer to March), so I’m going to flip this hypothetical first overall pick and give you a custom lineup that I’ve played a lot with on NBA 2K17 recently and would love to see on an NBA floor.

PG: George Hill

SG: Khris Middleton

SF: Kawhi Leonard

PF: Giannis Antetokounmpo

C: Anthony Davis

Patty Mills is having another great season in San Antonio, with an ever-expanding role, shooting 42.2 percent from deep and posting a career-high 3.5 assists per game, but you just can’t look past the magic of Joe “Uncle Splash” Ingles.

Seriously, there’s something in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, because Jingles leads the NBA in three-point percentage at 45 percent on three attempts a game!

There will be riots in the streets of Happy Valley, South Australia (yes, that exists) if Joe Ingles isn’t selected to take part in the three-point contest at the All-Star Weekend.

Make it happen, Adam Silver.

Without question.

Point Giannis went on a triple-double rampage after the All-Star break last season, but Khris Middleton was arguably the Bucks MVP for the entirety of the year. Not only did he lead the team in scoring at 18.2 points per game, but Khash was the most consistent two-way player on the roster and unquestionably the go-to option in crunch time.

Furthermore, Middleton led Milwaukee in steals at 1.7 per game, had the highest three-point percentage (39.6 percent on 4.6 attempts per game) of any player the Bucks retained for 2016-17 and developed into a really underrated playmaker, having averaged 4.2 assists per game last season (just 0.1 less than Giannis).

Before Middleton went down with the hamstring injury in late-September, I was predicting around 38-40 wins for the Bucks, probably just missing out on the playoffs. With Khris sidelined, I considerably lowered my expectations to roughly the 36-win mark. Obviously, my modest predictions didn’t account for Giannis exploding into stardom and Jabari developing into such a lethal 20-point per game scorer.

As it stands, the Bucks are above .500 and with Middleton (hopefully) on track to return sometime around the All-Star break, the Bucks have the potential to make a substantial playoff push and finish with 43-46 wins and the fifth or sixth seed in the East, which is extremely exciting considering the widely held expectations for this team heading into this season.

If the Bucks had Khris Middleton for the whole season, who knows?

Next: Milwaukee Bucks: Who Deserves the Most Improved Player Award?

Thanks for all of the great questions, everybody! Don’t forget to shoot us a tweet @BehindTheBucks to have your queries answered on next week’s Milwaukee Bucks Twitter Mailbag.