Jabari Parker: Not a Stretch Four?

The Milwaukee Bucks are taking their time converting Jabari Parker. The reason is surprising.

It turns out that former Duke star Jabari Parker is not a stretch power forward. This was revealed by Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd according to reports by CBS Sports’ James Herbert. It also is still the long term of the Bucks to try and convert him to such a position. It is just not going to happen right away.

So what is Parker right now? Evidently he is just a normal power forward for now. Count me among those surprised to discover that out. My assumption was that Parker would become a small forward at the professional level and possibly slide over to the four in small ball lineups. Now this article has Coach Jason Kidd telling me that Parker can’t shoot from outside.

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Since when was that the case? Did they oversell Parker’s shooting abilities in the run-up to the NBA Draft by that much? They must have if the Bucks do not trust Parker to take the shot and have him playing inside. One has to wonder if Parker’s shot was never that good or that he is not back from injury quite yet. It is clear he is still central to the plans of the Bucks, though.

The long-term plan is to play a small ball lineup combining the youthful Parker with the equally youthful Greek Freak, and the recently locked up Khris Middleton. It is a neat idea in theory if it did not depend on two keys who are working on their three point shooting and the interior defense of Greg Monroe. The key who backs up both Monroe and Parker is John Henson, who is all defense.

The team defense of the Bucks (9-13) has not been there this season, and so there will probably be a slowdown on this experiment until the team defense catches up. Still, Parker can’t shoot? Must we question everything now?

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