The Worst of Parker
While Parker’s offensive game proved to be a weapon ready to be unleashed upon opposing NBA defenses, his defense remained a definite work in progress.
Coming into the league, Parker was not known as a strong defensive player and very little has changed in the time since. The Chicago native has a high basketball IQ, but this has not transitioned to the defensive side of the ball as of yet. As something of a tweener, defensively he is often put into a position to guard a faster small forward or bang with a bigger power forward in the post.
It’s something Parker will have to work on in the coming year, especially as an ACL injury will not help in increasing foot speed or his explosive recovery. Despite this being an overall weakness of Parker’s, the hope will be that the emergence of Thon Maker could help the Bucks roster to hide this weakness in the longer term.
Injury prevented the Bucks from looking at a lineup that included Parker, Maker and Middleton together, and the hope would be they could both help to mask some of Jabari’s deficiencies. It would be short-sighted not to look at a 22-29 record with Parker in the lineup and forget that Middleton was injured and Maker had yet to get any real minutes..
Interestingly enough, Parker’s defensive win shares — an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a players defense — has improved each year he’s been in the league. Having started at 1.0 in his rookie year, to 1.2 as a sophomore, it equated to 1.5 wins this past season. The leaders in this category include the likes of Rudy Gobert (6.0), Draymond Green (5.4), and Giannis (4.5).
The telling sign is always going to be if Parker will be able to keep a faster small forward in front of him defensively without missing further defensive rotations that could lead to wide open three-point field goal attempts. Parker has been known to be absent-minded with defensive assignments, and then lack the necessary foot speed to recover.
In the end, if the Bucks become successful with him on the floor, it will likely be less about Parker’s individual defense and more about the players that surround him on the defensive end. Any small contributions Parker can bring to the table defensively will only increase his overall value as a player.