Washington Wizards: How Jabari Parker is fitting in so far

Washington Wizards forward Jabari Parker is showing he can still be a valuable asset despite playing for this third team within a year.

Washington Wizards forward Jabari Parker has already experienced more than his fair share of ups and downs during his young NBA career. A torn ACL injury limited him to just 25 games during his rookie 2014-15 campaign.

While Parker did manage to suit up 76 times in his second season, he could not escape the injury bug, as he sustained a second ACL injury during a breakout campaign in 2016-17 in which he averaged 20.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. He was forced him to miss the last 31 games of that season and the first 51 games of the following season.

Despite the amount of time he was off the court, he and the Chicago Bulls agreed to a two-year, $40 million deal — with a team option for the second year — prior to the start of the 2018-19 season. It was expected to be a feel-good story about a local guy returning to play for his hometown team, but it didn’t take long to see that the two sides were not a good fit.

Although he did have some memorable performances, his days in Chicago were numbered almost from day one. Parker and Bobby Portis were eventually shipped to the Wizards in exchange for Otto Porter Jr. Following his disappointing, short-lived stint in the Windy City, it would have been reasonable to wonder whether Parker would be able to resurrect his career.

Initially, it didn’t appear that would be the case, as he averaged just 10.6 points per outing in his first seven games with his new team. Since that time, however, his stock has been trending in the right direction, to say the least.

During the month of March, he has reached the 20-point plateau four times. Ironically, one of his more impressive performances came against the Bulls on Wednesday night.

In that contest, Parker was Washington’s leading scorer and finished with a stat line of 28 points, six rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. He shot 11-for-18 from the field and he knocked down three of his five attempts from beyond the arc.

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Since his depature from the Bulls, Parker has been a solid contributor off the bench. In 19 appearances, the fifth-year forward has compiled averages of 15.0 points and 7.4 rebounds per game on 55 percent shooting overall and 32.3 percent from 3-point range.

Additionally, Parker has reached double figures in 11 of his previous 12 outings and he has registered 10 games in which he’s scored at least 15 points, the most by any NBA reserve this month, per NBA.com.

Whether the Wizards choose to pick up the second year of Parker’s option remains to be seen, especially since part of the reason for trading Porter had to do creating some room under the team’s salary cap. Regardless of what happens though, Parker has not only proven to be a good midseason pickup for the Wizards, he has also more than likely conjured up interest from several other teams as well.