I’m not very good at doing free-agency speculation/analysis because I’m only vaguely aware of each teams’ salary cap situation. I’m also only vaguely aware of what a salary cap even is and how it relates to player salaries. Basically, the only thing I know for sure is that teams can’t spend infinite money unless they want to be banished to a realm known as “cap hell”, which is a physical place where GM’s are tormented by the fiery flames of the infernal conflagration for all eternity, or until they fix up their books by not paying their players so damn much money.
Given that backdrop, it’s hard for me to say what’s going to happen to Jabari Parker after this season. We know for sure that no team will ever pick up the twenty-million dollar option on his contract. Only in the injury-free timeline is Jabari worth that much money, and even then it’s doubtful if he still doesn’t care about playing defense (not like I care about defense myself – me and Jabari are soulmates in that way).
Will the Wizards resign him for less? Can they even do that when they decline his team option? I don’t know how these things work and every time I sit down to read the CBA cover to cover my brain feels like it’s turning into gravy. Assuming the Wizards are done with him (they don’t really need him if they keep Portis), Parker will have to find another team. But he’s played well enough in Washington this season that, if he keeps it up, I could see a relatively big payday in his future. Not “twenty million” big, but maybe eight million, maybe ten million per year for a few years. Teams will always value scorers because the game of basketball is about scoring points. It’s not called defenseball.
My OFFICIAL DTB PREDICTION is that the Orlando Magic will sign him to a two-year, eighteen million dollar deal. Because signing Jabari Parker is the kind of nonsensical, directionless move that has characterized the franchise ever since the Dwightmare. And I’m not just saying that because he just played against the Magic and they’re on my mind. Okay, maybe that did affect my thinking a little bit. But only a little.