Milwaukee Bucks: 5 goals for the 2018 offseason
2. Get value from Jabari Parker situation
It may be unfair to call Jabari Parker’s pending restricted free agency a “situation” when it’s generally what most young players in the league go through after their fourth season. Parker will hit free agency with the Bucks fully capable of matching any offer sheet he signs with another team.
Yet the specifics of Parker’s upcoming summer cast a more difficult tone on what is to come. The Bucks are limited financially, trying to avoid the luxury tax on a team that has spent too much in small instances and clogged up its cap sheet. That isn’t Parker’s problem, but it’s the reality of the Bucks’ situation.
Parker showed all of the upside of a max player two seasons ago as a creative and prolific scorer with the tools to be a passable defender. Then his second major knee injury since joining the league sat him down for a calendar year. Returning midway through this past season, Parker was relatively unhelpful to the Bucks winning basketball games.
Yet in the playoffs Parker dialed in and was a dynamic defensive player for long stretches, and for much of the final five games of the series against the Boston Celtics. That version of Parker, moving his feet on the perimeter and funneling offensive players into the waiting wingspan of Thon Maker, can be a two-way contributor for this team and make a difference.
Which Parker are the Bucks paying, however? If they decide to re-sign him, how much should they offer? Will Parker accept less than $20 million per season? If he won’t, then the Bucks will be slipping into the luxury tax.
The other primary option is to work out a sign-and-trade with another team that is comfortable staying under the hard cap and would like to add a young player with Parker’s upside. Would the Utah Jazz send Derrick Favors to Milwaukee in a double sign-and-trade? Would a Cleveland Cavaliers team without LeBron James swap Kevin Love for Parker and Dellavedova? Would the Chicago Bulls be willing to give up an asset for him?
What Milwaukee cannot afford to do is let Parker walk for nothing. Whether it works to negotiate with him before he can sign an offer sheet, or finds a trade partner, it doesn’t have other assets — or the path to them — to let him walk for nothing. There is reason to expect Parker is open to returning with Jason Kidd gone, but at what price? It’s a delicate balance to resolve the Jabari Parker situation.