Chicago Bulls: 3 big questions heading into 2018-19 NBA season
3. Can Jabari Parker stay healthy?
It is no secret that the Bulls have had difficulty landing marquee players in free agency.
Sure, guys like Pau Gasol and Dwyane Wade played reasonably well during their short stints in the Windy City, but both players are in the latter stages of their respective careers and couldn’t be expected to help lead the Bulls back to the NBA mountaintop.
Just it when it looked like the Bulls weren’t going to be major players in free agency, they decided to take a chance on Chicago native Jabari Parker, signing him to a two-year, $40 million deal with a team option for the second year of the contract.
Free agent forward Jabari Parker has agreed to a two-year, $40M deal with the Chicago Bulls, league sources tell ESPN. Milwaukee rescinded Parker's qualifying offer moments ago, making him unrestricted.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 14, 2018
Parker was taken at the No. 2 spot by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2014 NBA Draft. Unfortunately, he sustained an ACL injury that limited him to just 25 games during a rookie season that saw him post averages of 12.3 points and 5.5 boards per outing.
Parker did play 76 games the following season and was in the midst of a breakout season in 2016-17, when he averaged 20.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per contest on 49 percent shooting from the field.
Then, it happened again.
For the second time in three seasons, Parker sustained another ACL injury. As a result, he missed the remaining 31 games of that season and the first 51 games of the 2017-18 season.
When he’s healthy, Parker is an above-average scorer who can get his own shot and finish around the rim with the best of them.
That’s the good news.
On the other side of the narrative, being that Parker has spent approximately 44 percent of his NBA career nursing injuries, it is fair to wonder whether his body is capable of holding up over the course of an entire season, considering that he’s coming off multiple ACL injuries.
Die-hard Bulls fans are hoping that Parker will be able to shake off the injury bug and perform at a decent level. But if that isn’t the case, at the least the Bulls can opt out next season in the event Parker fails to make the grade.