The NBA offseason this year was a crazy one with numerous changes from players switching teams, new rules, and new schedules. Jae Crowder, Brook Lopez, D'Angelo Russell, Ante Zizic, Danilo Gallinari, Paul Milsap, Paul George, and Kyrie Irving have now switched teams, and most of them switched conferences. Next season the game will also adopt a change in rules relating to timeouts to improve game flow and a new player friendly schedule to minimize resting of players. Here are a few more updates on the NBA scene:
Will Milwaukee offer Parker a max contract?
Jabari Parker has shown just how good he can be at the NBA level, he showed that in his rookie year and he showed that in the year after when he recovered from his injury.
But Jabari Parker's main problem in his career this offseason is not his capabilities as a player but his conditioning and consistency with his health. Ever since Parker was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014 with the 2nd overall pick, he has always faced issues with injuries in two of his three NBA seasons. Now Gery Woelfel of Journal Sentinel has reported that Parker and his agent are Seeking a max or near the maximum contract from the Milwaukee Bucks. Parker can sign a $146 million dollar contract once his contract is up, Bartelstein, his agent, has said that there have already been positive talks with Milwaukee's front office.
Is Jabari Parker worth a max contract?
He had an incredible first season when he was poised to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award by averaging 12.3 points, 1.2 steals, and 5.5 rebounds but after a few months, he suffered a tear in his anterior cruciate ligament in a game against the Phoenix Suns.
Parker returned to action in November the next season and the 2015-2016 season was a great one for him playing 72 games without any injuries at all except for a sprain in his right foot that he missed one game for.
Everyone was expecting him to have an incredible year in 2016-2017 because he would be coming into the season healthy.
He did just that by averaging 20.1 points (career high), 0.4 blocks, 2.8 assists, and 6.1 rebounds (career high) while shooting 49 percent from the field and 36.5 percent from beyond the arc (career high). But Parker would once again have his heart broken with a second ACL injury in the same knee as the year before. This created more doubt of how durable Parker's leg is, he can play at a high level in the NBA, but can he stay healthy? And more importantly, does he deserve a max contract given his obvious injury concerns?
