Milwaukee Bucks Twitter Mailbag: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

In our latest Milwaukee Bucks Twitter Mailbag, Tim Wray discusses Jabari Parker‘s injury and how it could affect the team’s decisions moving forward.

Hello darkness, my old friend.

The mailbag is back again.

It began as a great day to be a Bucks fan. The franchise had finally announced the purchase of a D-League team, Thon Maker was featured in Bleacher Report’s digital magazine and Khris Middleton made his long-awaited return from injury.

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Admittedly, the Bucks’ performance against the Miami Heat was downright ugly, but the result almost became irrelevant when Jabari Parker suddenly went down in the third quarter, after minimal contact, on the same left knee he injured as a rookie (torn ACL).

Jabari struggled to get up and was unable to place any weight on his leg, requiring the assistance of teammates to head back to the locker room for further examination. Moments later, the Bucks indicated that Jabari had suffered a “sprained left knee”, however the full extent and severity of his injury won’t be known until he undergoes an MRI scan.

For now, all we can do is hold our collective breath and hope for some more positive news soon.

In the meantime, the weekly mailbag has returned and after the 106-88 loss to the Heat, we opened up 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.

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.

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 Wednesday, Thursday or Friday nights (usually post-game).

Now, let’s get to the questions!

(NOTE: Questions were answered overnight, prior to Jabari Parker’s MRI scan)

Being a Bucks fan is tough, and things like this suck, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

Sure, the bad days significantly outnumber the good, yet there’s something about overcoming everything that’s thrown at this team which makes the brief moments of triumph, such as Giannis being selected as an All-Star starter, that much sweeter.

The Bucks will always have their trademark terrible luck, but I have little doubt that the brightest days are ahead for the franchise. Although this feels like rock-bottom, things could be much worse. As it stands, Milwaukee still has youth on it’s side, plus the raw talent and potential upside to take advantage of it.

Considering the recent rough patch, I don’t think the Bucks need to blatantly tank because they’re already heading for the mid-lottery, but certainly a potential season-ending injury to Jabari would shift the focus away from making the playoffs and towards development, much like after the All-Star break last season. My main priorities would be tinkering with the defensive scheme, trying to play Giannis more on-ball, finding Thon Maker as many minutes as possible and ensuring Khris Middleton uses the last 30 games to shake off any rust and get back to his usual self.

This is an extremely good question, but probably one that’s best dealt with in due time.

Obviously, it all depends on the severity of Jabari’s injury. I’m not going to speculate further, but a second season-ending injury to his left knee within three seasons would make it a very tricky situation for the front office this summer, especially considering how similar setbacks have affected other players over the years.

I wouldn’t go as far to say that John Henson is completely awful, but he’s just irritatingly inconsistent from night-to-night, especially on the boards.

If I had to make an argument as to why he’s the starter, it would probably be because it allows Greg Monroe (who averages more minutes anyway) to maximize his time on the floor with Malcolm Brogdon and create less of a drop off with the second unit.

Next: Milwaukee Bucks: Grades From 106-88 Loss To Miami Heat

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.