Jabari Parker at the Bulls: Why the Bucks should not be blamed for its release

Jabari Parker was the consolation prize of Milwaukee Bucks' worst season, a No. 2 overall pick with incredible potential as a scorer and a very aesthetic style. The Bucks took him in 2014, after a year of only 15 wins for the rookie campaign of Giannis Antetokounmpo. It was an involuntary tank work that allowed the Bucks to win a lottery with high level talent, including Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid and Aaron Gordon.

Parker was a safe and seemingly intelligent choice once Wiggins went No. 1 overall. He was the son of a retired NBA player, Sonny Parker. He arrived at Duke as the top-5 consensus in the nation and kept his promise, breaking Duke's rookie scoring record and becoming the first freshman Blue Devil to lead the team by scoring and bouncing. He was one of the first in the US team and runner-up behind Doug McDermott for the lumber award.

Parker's career with the Bucks started pretty well: he won the rookie of the month of October / November 2014. But in December, he tore his ACL for the first time. He missed the rest of the season and the start of the next. Once on the field in 2015-16, he played pretty well, all things considered. His star had been overshadowed, however: Antetokounmpo was clearly something special.

It was not only Giannis – Khris Middleton also flourished, becoming the top scorer in Milkwaukee. Although Jabari was supposed to be the center of the Bucks universe once n ° 2 overall, the unique genius of Antetokounmpo basketball excluded him. He could have prospered as a standard solo marker alongside Giannis, a second traditional banana. But Middleton – who could defend and hit all three – subsumed this role. Meanwhile, Jabari's presence has not really made Milwaukee any better.

Middleton suffered an injury the following season that allowed Parker to take his place alongside Antetokounmpo. Jabari averaged 20 points per game and improved his efficiency, but the Bucks were still mediocre until Parker suffered the blow that would lead to his exit. On February 8 against Miami, he again tore his ACL.

This night was actually Middleton's first injury match. Without Parker and Middleton, Milwaukee would finish the season on a 20-11 run to slip into the playoffs, where he gave the Raptors hell in the first round. Parker would not return until the end of the 2017-18 season, where he would have a hard time adapting to a Giannis MVP, Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon and the rest.

Now the Bucks have seen him leave free agency while receiving nothing in return.

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Parker was the safe choice in 2014. There is nothing to it. Embiid became the best player in this repechage, but Jabari played 101 NBA games before Embiid entered his first match, and there was no sign of it. Public pre-project warning on Parker's knee. Injuries occur in sports. Catastrophic wounds occur. It was not a situation of Greg Oden, where there was a disturbing suspicion before the draft, and the team took him out anyway. If anything, the Embiid choice was similar to that.

Parker's situation was more like that of Shaun Livingston, who suffered a horrible and random injury early in his career and found himself on a trajectory quite different from where he was ranked No. 4.

Milwaukee, responsible selection at No. 2 in 2014 while they were trying to stabilize, soberly, a successful program. And the team found itself on the right track despite the infusion of chaos introduced by Jabari's two wounds. The Bucks have won 44 games this season for the first time since 2010 and only the second time since that magical season of 2001. Milwaukee is up and has a star. That's what the franchise was considering in June 2014, not knowing very well what Giannis would be. (19459027) Giannis did not.)

This is the sad and sobering reality of the end of Jabari's time in Milwaukee: the NBA is riddled with chaos. There are no safe things. You can minimize the risks and things can still go wrong. You can place a bet on a prospect with a pedigree and plans for success and watch it miss. You can bet on a complete point of questioning and end up with an MVP candidate. These things happen. Milwaukee, if nothing else, appeared even in the 2013 and 2014 drafts: a shocking victory and a shocking defeat.

That the Bucks are now losing Parker for nothing – having canceled his qualifying offer to allow the Bulls to sign him for a two-year $ 40 million contract as an unrestricted free agent – is a sad coda for last four years of Jabari sorrow.

But that's all the Bucks could do. Bet on Parker after seeing Milwaukee at his best without him would not make sense. The costs are already paid in the form of a choice essentially No. 2; no need to throw money into the pit, too. To let it close and heal is the right movement here.