Jabari Parker is beginning his professional career just 80 miles from his hometown. Yesterday he signed a deal with the Bucks that has $8.5 million guaranteed in the first two years. Will he be enough to turn around a basketball team that is truly the runt of the NBA franchise litter? Well, he is just one man. And the #2 overall pick has been a disaster more than it’s been a rousing success. However, Parker is the most pro ready player in this draft, and he should have gone first over Andrew Wiggins.
Let’s take a look about what kind of impact he could have.
The Milwaukee Bucks are in very dire straits and they don’t have a whole lot of pieces to supplement forward Jabari Parker. I’m pretty certain he’ll go the way of previous second overall picks Alonzo Mourning, Victor Oladipo or Kenny Anderson. I don’t think he’ll fall into the NBA Draft #2 bust category with Hasheem Thabeet, Shawn Bradley, Darko, well that list goes on and on.
In the second round, the team took Damien Inglis (31st overall) and Johnny O’Bryant (36th overall), and traded the draft rights to Lamar Patterson (48th overall) to Atlanta for a Brooklyn 2015 second-round draft pick (via Atlanta). Nothing in that previous sentence should excite you, Bucks fans. However, they did find value in those picks. Draft night starts and ends with Parker, but they made the best of what’s around.
Jabari Parker (6-8, 235) is the fourth freshman in ACC history to lead the league in rebounding, so you’ll know that he’ll crash the boards early and often in Brew town. His selection by the Bucks was the worst kept secret in this draft, as we all knew he was headed there a couple days before the pick was made. And it makes sense as this was a no-brainer pick.
A native of Chicago, Parker attended Simeon Career Academy, where he led Simeon to four IHSA Class 4A state championships. During his NBA Draft interview, the interviewer basically portrayed Milwaukee as a far northern suburb of Chicago, and it some ways it truly is. The reason I bring this up is that Jabari took that, embraced that fact and then spun it to being all about Milwaukee.
In another interview, Jabari Parker was asked about the massive rebuilding project in beer city, to which he responded “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” So he’s saying all the right things, as does every NBA Draft pick as they’re all well-coached and over-managed by handlers by the time they reach draft night. However, Wiggins is still a horrible interview, as he’s just painfully boring to endure listening to. Jabari Parker is not.
He’s interesting enough that I believe he’s pretty smart. Or at least the sharpest kid in this draft, and that matters because I think he’ll mentally develop faster than all the other rookies.
“They’re a young team,” Parker said. “I feel like I can contribute right off the bat. I feel like I’m going to be able to grow with that organization, and I’m trying to be a throwback player, only stick with one team.”
“This might bite me in the butt years from now, but right now I just want to stick with whoever’s rolling with me,” Jabari Parker said.
He’s my early pick to NBA Rookie of the Year because I think he’s more physically and mentally mature than most of the lottery picks. Here’s what our own David Kmiecik thinks of the Bucks draft, as he gave draft grades for every team
Milwaukee Bucks: A-
2. Jabari Parker, SF, Duke
31. Damien Inglis, SF, France
36. Johnny O’Bryant III, PF, LSU
Jabari and the Bucks each received their wish when the Cavs passed on him in favor of Wiggins. Parker is the go-to scorer that Milwaukee needs and crazy enough as it sounds, he actually wants to be in Milwaukee. Inglis should develop into at least a defensive forward in the NBA which is suddenly becoming crowded for the Bucks since they still have the Greek Freak. O’Bryant will add some physicality inside so overall, Milwaukee did a solid job of adding young talent.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! The Postgame. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, the History Channel and more. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)