How many bad teams does Jabari Parker have to be one before one of the finally goes “yeah, sure, you can dominate the ball for the entire game and score twenty points per game if you want, not like we have anything better going on with our offense anyway”? The Bulls (bad team) decided that they want to give those touches to Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen. The Wizards (bad team) gave those touches to Bradley Beal. And the Hawks? It remains to be seen.
With Trae Young injured for at least a little bit, now would theoretically be a good time to let Parker loose. That is, if they want to spend precious development minutes/ball time on a 6-year player who is pretty much a known quantity at this point over some of their rawer homegrown talent.
That’s the problem right there. No one’s going to give Parker the keys to any sort of offense when he’s just an aging (weird to say that about him, it feels like he’s an ancient vet even though he’s only 24) pure scorer with no dense. Much easier to justify, if you’re a bad team, letting your horrible rookies run around and take horrible shots befitting their horribleness. At least, then, you’re “building for the future” or something.
So I have a deal for Parker: he can come to the pickup games I frequent at the park and I promise he gets to shoot as many times as he wants. This is a good deal for him because they allow dunking (no hanging on the rim though) unlike a lot of places. And I know how much he likes to dunk.