Report: Jabari Parker to Return to Bucks in November
Jabari Parker will not be back for Opening Night of the Milwaukee Bucks season.
However he is on track to be back by November according to reports from Anath Pandian of CBS Sports. November is just a few days away, so the wait does not have to be too long.
Pandian’s report is based off a quote from Coach Jason Kidd. Kidd basically said that Parker is doing everything right up to this point and he will be back soon. Kidd’s quote continued to say that Parker would be worked into the lineup slowly, and at first he would only be playing 10-15 minutes.
Many anticipate the return of Jabari Parker to see how the Bucks will use him. Parker was drafted with the expectation that he would be used at small forward. Now flex lineups are more the rage, and the Bucks may wish to pair Parker’s shooting with free agent signing Greg Monroe. That would give Monroe more room to maneuver in the paint on offense. That is a model similar to the Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons.
However this begs the question, what happens to defense when Monroe-Parker is the post combination? Is defense as important as it once was?
In the meantime, Bucks fans should expect to see lots of John Henson. Henson is still the best post partner for Monroe available. He offers rim protection and better post defense. He also is locked down for the next few years with a contract extension.
All together the Bucks should be in good shape to repeat their playoff run of last year. The team is mostly complete from that success and they have even added some pieces. The last of those will be the return of Parker, which will make the Bucks one of the more feared teams in the Eastern Conference.