Top 5 Scorers Who Are Hurting Their Teams

4. Jabari Parker, Milwaukee Bucks

Points Per Game: 20.1, On Court/Off Court: -6.3

Jabari Parker was the second overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft and because of his ability to score, he seems destined to live up to that lofty draft position.

However, those numbers are deceiving in terms of Parker’s true contribution to the Bucks’ cause, as evidenced by his minus-6.3 net plus-minus rating.

Once again, defense seems to be the primary problem here, given that Jabari Parker is ranked dead last in Real Plus-Minus out of 94 power forwards currently playing in the NBA.

Simply put, if a player scores well on one end, but gives up even more on the other, he isn’t truly an asset to his team.

Parker, like Zach LaVine, is out for the season — coincidentally with the same injury and it happened less than a week after LaVine went down. Jabari Parker logged minutes in 51 games prior to his injury, so the sample size is acceptable.

The parallels between their situations are interesting. If a player is truly of great value to their team, as time goes on that team will eventually begin to struggle without that player on the court.

However, the Bucks are still significantly better six weeks after Parker’s knee injury than they were when he was healthy — not a good sign if Parker is considered a big part of Milwaukee’s future.