Jabari Parker looked on his way to winning Rookie of the Year in 2014/15 when an ACL injury ended his season. The Bucks managed to survive the loss and went on to make the playoffs as the sixth seed, something that seemed unthinkable at the time.
A healthy Jabari Parker is essential to the Bucks’ playoffs hopes
The Bucks want to be conservative in bringing Parker back from injury, but too much caution could cost them their place in the postseason.
Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
This year things are different. The roster is thinner and expectations are high. The Bucks won’t be able to take teams by surprise anymore and the lower half of the East’s playoff race will be much more competitive. For Milwaukee to remain in the mix, Parker needs to be ready to suit up and regain his comfort level sooner rather than later. The problem is that having him play regular minutes right off the bat carries with it some risk, which the Bucks don’t seem ready to take.
“We’re going to be very conservative with him,” general manager John Hammond told the Washington Post’s Michael Lee. “If we think he’s capable of playing 20, we’ll maybe play him 10 minutes. If we think he can play a back-to-back, we’ll wait on the back-to-back. Whatever it is, we’re going to be very cautious as he move forward because of the magnitude of who he can be and who we hope he can be for our organization going forward.”
That’s obviously a smart way to go about things. Milwaukee is not a contender yet, so it makes no sense to rush Parker back. They are, however, hoping to remain relevant.
The Bucks signed Greg Monroe to a max contract and spent $70 million to bring back shooting guard Khris Middleton. The franchise is getting public funds to build an arena and providing a good product would go a long way towards muting criticism. They are not in rebuilding mode anymore, now that the core in place showed it could be competitive. Not making the postseason would be considered a failure, and that's a real possibility if Parker takes too long to regain his form.
There’s no safety net anymore
Last season the Bucks didn't really need Parker to make the playoffs because they had veterans Ersan Ilyasova and Jared Dudley manning the power forward position. Between the two they were able to provide spacing for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Michael Carter-Williams to operate. Even after Parker went down, the Bucks kept humming along.
Both players have been traded now without any real talent coming back. The moves have left the roster very thin at the forward slots. Johnny O'Bryant and Chris Copeland are solid deep rotation guys, but neither should have a sizable role on a good team. Monroe was brought in to play center. The Bucks will need to get creative to mask their weakness at power forward.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, full time power forward?
If Parker really is going to play limited minutes and miss some games altogether, Giannis Antetokounmpo could slide to power forward and Middleton to small forward for the majority of their minutes. Two point guard lineups with Carter-Williams and Greivis Vasquez would allow the team to have an extra ball handler on the floor. Inserting O.J. Mayo would provide another shooter to a lineup that would need it.
Hammond recently talked about the possibility of playing Antetokounmpo at center in small ball lineups and he certainly has the size to settle as a faux big man. Offensively it could work, as not a lot of big men can hang with the Greek Freak athletically. On the other end, however, Antetokounmpo would have to bang with players that have a lot of pounds on him. Long term, Antetokounmpo should be able to play that spot, but he might not be strong enough right now.
Looking at the roster, this appears to be the best solution, but it’s far from ideal.
The Bucks need Parker to be ready to go at the start of the season
The roster for this season has been built with a healthy Parker in mind. That’s why there’s no way to replace him. He didn’t really have enough time to prove his worth last season but, at least in theory, his skill set is what binds everything together. The bulkier Parker would guard power forwards so Antetokounmpo doesn’t have to. On the other end, he would create mismatches and space the floor to provide an offensive boost. The two complement each other perfectly.
If Parker truly plays just 10 minutes a game for the first couple of months of the season, the Bucks could struggle to get enough wins to start the new year in a good spot in the standings. In November they will face a lot of Eastern Conference teams that are direct rivals. In December they will start going against Western powers. The East will have a lot of parity next season and it could be hard to recover from the slow start that could be in store if they are not at full force.
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The Bucks clearly have a bright future. Parker and Antetokounmpo have star potential and there are some other nice pieces under contract. With some luck, they could be a contender in a few years.
The challenge next season will be to balance short and long term goals. To take another step forward, Milwaukee needs Parker suiting up and logging regular minutes. If he rushes back and suffers another injury, however, their dreams of contention would suffer a big blow. Finding the right balance will be the most important part of Jason Kidd’s job.
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