Milwaukee Bucks: 3 reasons Jabari Parker will be missed
3. Production possibilities
How much can the Bucks miss the production from a player who seemed to be constantly injured? The numbers would suggest that Parker may actually have some untapped, high-level production within his playing style.
In fact, running a quick player comparison search on Parker’s last two individual seasons will demonstrate his efficiency potential. Let us begin with his 2016-17 season, a year widely considered to be his best.
During that season, Parker put up an impressive stat line including 49 percent shooting and 36.5 percent from 3. Additionally, Parker did so while taking 16 total shots from the field per game, as well a career high 3.5 3-point shots per game. There were only two other players to put up those type of numbers. Their names are LeBron James and Kevin Durant. See for yourself:
| Crit | Crit | Crit | Crit | Shoo | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Season | Age | Tm | FG% | 3P% | FGA | 3PA | 2P% |
| 1 | LeBron James | 2016-17 | 32 | CLE | .548 | .363 | 18.2 | 4.6 | .611 |
| 2 | Kevin Durant | 2016-17 | 28 | GSW | .537 | .375 | 16.5 | 5.0 | .608 |
| 3 | Jabari Parker | 2016-17 | 21 | MIL | .490 | .365 | 16.0 | 3.5 | .525 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/14/2018.
I also decided to run Parker’s shooting percentages from this past season. He owned a 48 percent field goal percentage and a 38 percent 3-point percentage. Yet, Parker only took 10.7 total shots per game, and 2.6 of them came from deep. Still, only 13 players in the league matched these numbers.
It is important to keep in mind that players with more talent tend to take more shots, and are therefore susceptible to having some slightly lower shooting percentages. Nonetheless, some of the names on this list are Karl-Anthony Towns, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Gary Harris, teammate Malcolm Brogdon and Kyrie Irving among others.
Am I guaranteeing that Parker will become a future All-Star like the names mentioned above? No. He can, however, continue his trajectory of efficient basketball. If Parker finds a way to maintain his health, he could become a star. The potential for eliteness is in his skill-set and shows in his statistics. The only question is, will he be healthy enough to make it a reality?