The Milwaukee Bucks were a team on the rise, despite their underachieving season at 22-29, 11th in the Eastern Conference. With a playoff bid not fully out of the picture, this season for the young Bucks is all about progression for their future and developing their young talent for the long-term plan.
Giannis Antetokounmpo became the team’s first All-Star since Michael Redd in 2004, and is averaging career-highs in points (23.2), rebounds (8.7), assists (5.4) steals (1.7) and blocks (2.0). He has become the clear-cut face of the franchise with his constant progression as a player and the team trusting him with a five-year, $100M extension to make the team a legitimate threat soon.
Antetokounmpo can’t win games by himself, and that’s where Jabari Parker enters as a consistent front-court secondary option. The powerful duo was something to behold this season until Parker tore his left ACL once again — joining the aforementioned Redd – on a small list of players to tear their ACL twice throughout their NBA careers along with Josh Howard. Parker and Redd are the only two to tear it in the same knee.
Parker’s injury occurred the same game in which Khris Middleton was making his season debut from a completely torn left hamstring. Just when the Bucks are on the verge of having all their tools at the same time, another one becomes hobbled.
Parker, who was averaging career-highs in points (20.1) and rebounds (6.1), was finally coming on as a bigger threat on the court before his devastating injury. Once the injury news became official via press release, the sore sight in the announcement was Parker’s timeline of 12 months. It virtually guarantees his 2017-’18 season won’t begin until after the 2018 All-Star Game if he follows the announced timeline and suffers no setbacks.
It’s believed when players suffer ACL injuries it takes them maybe a year to a year and a half to regain the characteristics of the player they once were. If that’s the case, the Bucks might not see the Parker they’re used to until the 2018-’19 season, if he’s still on the team then, because anything in the NBA is possible.
It’s entirely possible the Bucks might’ve offered Parker a max contract extension come this summer once the July moratorium period began, due to all prospects from the 2014 draft still on their rookie deals becoming eligible for extensions.
Parker joins Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine as another player on an upstart team who is out with an ACL injury when it’s extension time. The difference between the two cases is Parker’s injury has occurred twice in a short span, and LaVine suffered such an impactful injury and that might be foreign to him.
The Bucks and Timberwolves are in unique positions when it comes to their young stars. Both Parker and LaVine aren’t the stars on their respective teams and trade rumors have been flirted with the two. In any other upstart position around the league, they’d be “that guy, main” but they aren’t. Maybe that’s why there have been small trade talks with each, but of course nothing substantial.
When it comes to both inking new deals come the summer and early fall of 2017, that’s probably a no-brainer for the most part, right? Well, looking at the construction of the Timberwolves, the primary focus is LaVine and Andrew Wiggins when it comes to extensions. Wiggins is most likely their top option over LaVine and would be in line for a max contract even before the injury to his teammate. Once the Wiggins situation gets resolved, then it’s onto LaVine, but then there’s the thought of Karl-Anthony Towns the following year who will become eligible for an extension. Not everyone can make max dollars, and the odd man out could be LaVine.
With Parker, he’s set to cash out when the Bucks extend an offer his way. An interesting thought though is Thon Maker. He was the big mystery in the 2016 draft, and with Parker now out for the foreseeable future, increments of his 34 minutes per game could slightly make their way to Maker throughout the season, especially if the team falls out of the playoff picture.
In a league where the term “unicorn” has become the definition of players with massive frames and diverse skill-sets, Maker could become one in due time alongside “The Greek Freak” and unicorn leader in Antetokounmpo. The Bucks having two unicorns on the same team playing at high levels would be a mismatch nightmare for the entire league, but that’s complete fantasy until the Bucks own the future.
