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NBA Free Agency: Hawks Should Take a Chance on Jabari Parker

By Chris Guest

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 17: Jabari Parker #12 of the Milwaukee Bucks looks on in the first quarter of Game Two in Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on April 17, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 17: Jabari Parker #12 of the Milwaukee Bucks looks on in the first quarter of Game Two in Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on April 17, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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MILWAUKEE, WI – APRIL 09: Jabari Parker  (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WI – APRIL 09: Jabari Parker  (Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Parker can hit shots from deep (38.3% last season), explode to the rim for some nasty dunks (299 career dunks) and is a generally good finisher around the rim in traffic (66.5 percent shooter from 0-3 feet). At 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, Parker might be best suited to playing the four, but that is also the natural position for John Collins (he of the Second Team All-Rookie inclusion).

Positional redundancy shouldn’t really be an issue for this team, though, as the entire NBA gets smaller, Collins, Parker and Omari Spellman could play at the four and Dewayne Dedmon, Mike Muscala and Miles Plumlee (in case of emergency) could get minutes at the five.

Of those players, Parker is most likely to be able to slide down and play some three – though he will have to improve his rather porous defense if that were to be the case.

Per 100 possessions, Parker has a sky-high 110 defensive rating, a rather heady number for a player of Parker’s athleticism and skill set. Mostly, his lack of defensive chops seems to be an effort problem, which is something that Head Coach Lloyd Pierce has preached he will try to instill in his young players going forward.

During the latter stages of the Bucks 7-game series loss to the Boston Celtics, Parker actually looked quite good on defense, which was the first time that could be said of his defense at any point in his career.

Were the Hawks to sign Parker, they would have an impressive core of John Collins, Trae Young, Kevin Huerter, Omari Spellman, Tyler Dorsey and Parker – a group of player with a lot of offensive firepower as well as ample athleticism and projectable NBA futures.

While taking a flyer on Parker would certainly be a risk, this would be the most exciting Hawks team since the glorious 60-win group of 2014-15, though the 2018-19 team would be far, far younger with a (hopefully) much brighter future ahead of them.

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Certainly, Parker is both an injury risk and a play style risk, as his defense might never be up to snuff at the NBA level, which would not work well at all alongside Trae Young. However, if Parker can live up to his #2 overall selection, the Hawks might be able to land a franchise cornerstone this offseason via free agency.