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Post by Admin on Apr 20, 2018 13:43:13 GMT -5
I said it during game 3 ... "Tatum makes Jabari Parker look like a bust" and here's the rest of the story. "And if you can't fly you'll have to move in with the rhythm section" Jabari Parker’s Time With the Bucks Is Just About UpThe 2014 no. 2 pick sees the writing on the wall, and his recent responses to the media have reflected as much. On Thursday before Game 3 against the Celtics, he aired his grievances.By Paolo Uggetti /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59451961/947939152.jpg.0.jpg) Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesHours before Jabari Parker had his worst-scoring game of the regular season against the Los Angeles Clippers in late March, the former no. 2 overall pick sat in the visiting team locker room at Staples Center, pondering his place on the Milwaukee Bucks. He fielded the typical hackneyed question about how incredible it is to watch Giannis Antetokounmpo and responded with a polite but uneffusive answer. He was asked how his return from another knee surgery had set him back from becoming a key piece of a playoff-bound team. Parker played 19 minutes that night and scored only two points on 12 shots. He made one field goal and missed four 3s. Three games later, he would play nearly 40 minutes and score 35 points against the Denver Nuggets. “There’s been ups and downs,” interim coach Joe Prunty said that game. Two games into their playoff series against the Celtics, little has gone right for either Parker or Milwaukee. The Bucks are down 2–0 in the first-round series, and Parker has played a total of 25 minutes. He isn’t happy about it, and on Thursday, before a decisive Game 3, he aired his grievances.That was news to Prunty:
For a natural-born scorer, the idea that the only way Parker can help the team is through “defense and rebounding” must sound like a loss of faith in the very skill that got him here. But as a longtime assistant coach, Prunty has an eye for the little things, and it swings both ways. Before that Clippers game in March, Prunty went out of his way to praise Parker for a touch pass in a previous game that had set up a Khris Middleton 3. A touch pass. “It’s one of those small, simple plays that no one will talk about,” he said. After the Clippers game, he said that though Parker had missed all but one shot, he’d “earned the right to be out there” because of his defense. But lately, that right has been incrementally revoked. Parker thus far just hasn’t been good enough to justify being on the court during the series. He’s made only one field goal in two playoff games, and even though his regular-season counting numbers weren’t disastrous, the team had a minus-3.5 net rating when Parker was on the floor and a positive net rating when he was off it. Judgment of his performance is not improved by the eye test either. Parker struggles to move laterally. His shot is often flat, and he can’t get to the rim with the same ease he had before his most recent ACL injury. Though he is shooting 38 percent from 3 in the regular season, he’s taken only one 3 in the postseason. He’s clearly not yet comfortable spacing the floor. That often leads to his attempting to make cuts that aren’t there, which in turn crowds the paint, keeping Giannis from getting to the rim himself. Parker has been sapped of the explosiveness that made him such a tantalizing prospect coming out of Duke, but teammate Marshall Plumlee still remembers the old Jabari. The two became friends while Parker was with the Blue Devils, and when Plumlee signed a two-way contract with the Bucks in January, they reconnected. Parker gifted him a couple pairs of Jordans, and they got together on flights to stream Duke tournament games on Plumlee’s phone. Their connection had given Plumlee some perspective on Parker’s mind-set after a series of catastrophic injuries. “He’s always been a really hungry player going back to Duke — really, really competitive,” Plumlee told me in March. “So I think there are certain frustrations that have come with the process of getting back. He’s never satisfied. He always wants to do more, but there’s a certain patience and timeline coming back from injuries.” Patience looks to be running out during these playoffs from all parties involved. Parker will be a restricted free agent this offseason, and the Bucks will have to decide whether to keep him or let the former lottery pick walk. Fair or not, he’s an entirely different player now than the one the Bucks drafted four years ago. The team reportedly offered him a three-year, $54 million extension before the season, which he promptly turned down. Parker’s fellow top-three picks from 2014, Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, have both gotten max contracts worth three times that amount.“I just have to see what’s going to happen with my future, and that’s uncertain,” Parker told The Washington Post earlier this month. “But I know for them, they’ll be fine regardless. They’ve been doing well.” Parker’s discontent has been mounting for weeks. “I am human,” Parker said Thursday. “I have a right to be frustrated. I’ve waited two years for this.”Unfortunately, it all sounds like a person who knows he’s not long for this team. www.theringer.com/nba/2018/4/19/17258956/jabari-parker-bucks-end |
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Post by Admin on Apr 20, 2018 14:54:59 GMT -5
 How the Boston Celtics played Jabari Parker onto the benchBy: Greg Cassoli
Jabari Parker has struggled to find minutes in the first-round series between the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks.
Jabari Parker has been one of the NBA’s more intriguing players since being drafted second overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014. He played just 25 games before tearing the ACL in his left knee.
For a year and a half after returning to action, Parker had all the trappings of a star in the making. He blended a grace that belied his size with expanded range, developing into something of an offensive matchup nightmare.
Traditional bigs were to slow to keep Parker in front of them and wings didn’t possess the requisite size to keep him from barreling his way to the hoop. No one had any chance when he had a full head of steam in transition.
Parker’s star was very much on the rise come his third season in the league, but injuries reared their ugly head once more. Parker endured a second ACL tear on the same knee he injured in his rookie year.
He rejoined the team for the tail end of the current NBA campaign, playing in 31 regular season games. Parker appeared to have found something of a rhythm heading into the postseason, averaging 12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 24.0 minutes per game, while posting .482/.383/.741 shooting splits.
Parker spent most of his time in a bench role, a far cry from the verge of superstardom where he operated prior to his injury. That shouldn’t be viewed as a critique. Recovering from an injury as traumatic as that which Parker sustained is no small task. Milwaukee was wise to ease him back into his time on the court.
Finding a way to contribute was meaningful progress for Parker, the first step towards reestablishing his former basketball self. That he would play in the postseason was something of a foregone conclusion. Or at least it seemed to be.
Through the Bucks’ first two tilts with the Boston Celtics, Parker has logged just 12.3 minutes per game, roughly half of what he was earning throughout the year. The reduction in playing time hasn’t gone unnoticed. “It’s hard to play four minutes then sit out,” Parker told reporters today, per ESPN’s Eric Nehm. When asked about how he thought he could earn more court time, Parker replied, “Be on my coach’s good side. Yeah. Whatever that is, just try to be on the good side.” Parker’s comments come from a place of frustration, but directing his ire towards his coach isn’t fair. The Bucks have been abysmal when he’s played. Milwaukee has been outscored by an unfathomable 53.3 points per 100 possessions in Parker’s minutes through the series’ first two games. That number is skewed substantially by small sample size bias, but the film supports the hypothesis that Parker is a major negative, particularly on the defensive end of the court. Parker has never been a good defender, or even an average one for that matter, and the Celtics don’t offer a good hiding spot for him. He’s got no chance against Boston’s traditional wings. Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and even Marcus Morris are all too dangerous off the bounce for him to handle one-on-one. ssl.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/nba/wsc/2018/04/15/league_f7eb9395-880f-205e-9986-b2f265d57e14.nba_2311003_1280x720_3500.mp4?_=1Parker gets himself into even greater trouble attempting to cover the Celtics’ perimeters options off the ball, an area of his game that his been his most persistently damning. ssl.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/nba/wsc/2018/04/18/league_d212ef0a-62b7-bbb5-6fb7-57defe4e04e3.nba_2316026_1280x720_3500.mp4?_=3The Bucks have opted to put Parker on Boston’s bigs at times, but he doesn’t have the heft or defensive chops in the post to compete with the likes of Al Horford or Greg Monroe. ssl.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/nba/wsc/2018/04/18/league_d212ef0a-62b7-bbb5-6fb7-57defe4e04e3.nba_2316026_1280x720_3500.mp4?_=3The only playoff regulars on the Celtics’ roster that can’t exploit Parker’s defensive deficiencies are Aron Baynes and Guerschon Yabusele, neither of whom see all that many minutes. That’s not really anything new. The proposition with Parker has always been that his offensive value would outweigh the harm he causes to his team’s defense. But Boston has an army of long, strong, intelligent defenders. Where most teams have to choose between defending Parker with size or speed, the Celtics have multiple options with sufficient ability in both domains. They’ve done an excellent job at staying in front of Parker, and forcing him into tough shots. ssl.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/nba/wsc/2018/04/18/league_ca949c30-8b76-e885-3be7-8f63536f3f47.nba_2316006_1280x720_3500.mp4?_=4If Parker isn’t contributing meaningfully on offense then he’s always going to be too much of a defensive liability to warrant minutes. Boston has neutered his offensive production almost entirely. He’s been tethered to the bench by head coach Joe Prunty accordingly. There isn’t much reason to think that’s about to change. Unless Parker starts pouring in points, Prunty would be foolish to play him. Thus far, the Celtics collection of versatile defenders has proven to be more than up to the task of keeping Parker in check – a nightmare matchup for a matchup nightmare. celticswire.usatoday.com/2018/04/19/how-the-boston-celtics-played-jabari-parker-onto-the-bench/
... Parker voiced his frustration to the media yesterday. Former teammate and current Boston big man Greg Monroe discussed the matter at the Celtics’ shootaround today.
“ talked to him briefly, and it was more so about keeping his head, staying focused,” he said. “That’s really it. He just wants to play. You would want anybody to feel like that. That’s really it.”
Monroe functions as a strong source of perspective. At 27, he’s just four years Parker’s senior, but he’s already filled almost every role imaginable throughout his NBA career.
From starter and potential star in the making, to key bench cog, to castoff waiting to be bought out by a tanking team, Monroe went through a lot before landing in Boston. The wisdom he’s acquired along the way could prove invaluable for a player in Parker’s current predicament.
celticswire.usatoday.com/2018/04/20/boston-celtics-greg-monroe-on-former-milwaukee-bucks-teammate-jabari-parker-he-just-wants-to-play/
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Post by cole on Apr 26, 2018 15:13:38 GMT -5
Here's a guy whose career (other than the injury) would have had a much different trajectory if he'd played in Boston or SanAn vs Milwaukee, esp under the previous coach.
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