Milwaukee Bucks: 5 reasons to be optimistic after 2016-17 season

Jabari Parker was a special scorer

The Milwaukee Bucks were a better defensive team this season when Jabari Parker sat on the bench, and their surge into the playoffs was fueled by that side of the ball. With a second knee surgery in three seasons, there is no guarantee Parker will return at the same level he was playing at, let alone improve as a defensive player.

But when he was on the court, few players were as special as Jabari Parker at scoring the basketball. He came into the year with an even more diverse bag of offensive skills, battering through smaller defenders on the block and blowing past larger defenders on the wing.

Last season Parker’s greatest weakness was his lack of outside shooting, a problem intensified by a Milwaukee team with a deep pool of shooters. He came into this year a changed man, putting up 3.5 shots from beyond the arc per game, up from 0.5 attempts last season, and increasing his percentage on those shots from 25.7 percent to 36.5 percent. Parker turned a weakness into a strength.

Parker also improved his finishing at the rim, which made his ability to put the ball on the deck and drive that much more lethal. Overall Parker’s effective field goal percentage rose to 53 percent this season. Among players scoring at least 20 points per game, that put Parker ahead of Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Anthony Davis, and fellow 2014 draftees Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid.

The questions remain, and it may be the end of next season or beyond until we learn whether Parker will fully recover from this knee injury. But what we do know is that Parker’s athleticism and skill set, combined with his work ethic, can produce a special offensive player.