It’s been an active offseason for the Milwaukee Bucks. Between winning the race to hire former Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer to lead the team from the bench and selecting Final Four hero Donte DiVincenzo in the first round of the NBA Draft, the Bucks have managed to keep things entertaining up to this point.
Next up, Milwaukee is heading into the free agency period trying to figure out exactly what to do with restricted free agent Jabari Parker. The former No. 2 overall pick has about as checkered of an injury history as you’ll find, and there are questions about his fit within Budenholzer’s system, namely due to his struggles on the defensive end of the floor.
Still, Parker is only 23, and despite his injuries and the obvious rust he showed this past season he’s a talented offensive player. If he can get his body right, and the Bucks don’t want to match a big-money offer, Parker could be in line to switch teams. According to Bucks reporter Gery Woelfel, it’s expected that a number of teams will end up having interest in Parker this summer.
Besides Sacramento and Philadelphia, some other teams that have surfaced as potential landing spots for Parker Chicago, Utah, Indiana, Atlanta, Phoenix and Brooklyn. The latter team has been quite active in free agency in recent years, including having extended a max offer to small forward Otto Porter, which Washington matched. The Nets also made a huge offer to guard Tyler Johnson, which Miami matched.
One NBA executive told Woelfel they believe there are teams that will be willing to give Parker $20 million a season, at which point the Bucks will have to make a decision on whether to match what other teams offer. Milwaukee, of course, has the ability to match any offer, and if they want, the possibility also exists for a sign-and-trade with Parker.
It remains to be seen if any of this actually happens, because it’s plausible that Milwaukee is just as in love with what Parker brings to the table as anyone. But in the event they’re not as enamored with his talent as another team, it stands to reason that Parker could end up being one of the bigger names to change teams this summer.
(Via Woelfel’s Press Box)
