Our Latest NBA Rumor Has Jabari Parker Joining The Bulls
The remaining free agency of a couple of guys are worth monitoring, most notably guys like Clint Capela, Marcus Smart and Jabari Parker. We’ve heard about some offers on Twitter for Capela, and Smart’s agent has done a good job of leaking info in an attempt to create a market for Smart, but for the most part everything has been really quiet when it came to Jabari Parker. Pretty crazy in my opinion considering when healthy (which he is), he is a pretty legit NBA small ball four. I thought it was interesting when news broke that the Bulls were rescinding their qualifying offer for David Nwaba, because he was a pretty good reserve guard for CHI last season. It felt like maybe this was the first domino to fall for something bigger
Well we know know they will not be absorbing Kenneth Faried as he was traded to BKN late last night, so that second comment by KOC is what I want to focus on. He’s obviously plugged into the league so that’s what made me feel like he wasn’t just pulling that out of thin are.
And then…
Credit known #ScoopCity member White Sox Dave, as he was the first person I saw with this news
I then started to see it come from other random NBA accounts that I have no idea how credible they are, but do have a decent following
Now obviously with everything that involves RFA, if I was a Bulls fan I would be happy about this depending on the final price. If they spend the whole $20M in space on Parker, I can understand feeling like that is a little bit of an overpay. I can tell you that even without factoring in Parker’s salary, the Bucks are at about $116M in committed salary for next year, which is around $8M under the luxury tax line. I would think they want to avoid being a tax paying team at this point considering they still have a ways to go to truly compete in the East, so starting your repeater tax eligibility now probably isn’t the smartest way to go about things. That means the Bulls theoretically wouldn’t have to offer something crazy for Parker to force MIL to not match, even something in the 10-14M range should get it done and still give them room to make some additional moves.
If you’re a Bulls fan and you can get him for a reasonable price, I’m curious if you’re interested? Parker is from Chicago and is essentially a local legend for what he did at Simeon, so it would be fun to see him return home and be that hometown hero sort of like Derrick Rose was. From a basketball standpoint, here’s what their lineup could potentially look like
Dunn/LaVine/Parker/Baby Dirk/Wendell Carter Jr (Lopez may start the year here, but he shouldn’t imo)
That’s one hell of a fun young roster if you ask me. Especially if Dunn continues to progress and LaVine gets back to where he was pre-injury. Dare I say it may even be a playoff team in the East? You could talk me into a 7/8 seed if everything breaks right for them, remember it should only take around a .500 record to sneak in. In terms of basketball fits, Parker’s ability to play inside/outside would be beneficial for CHI. They’re a team that takes a decent amount of threes (6th in the league) and their 11.0 3PM a night had them 10th. As promising as Justin Holiday was last season in his 72 starts, I think I’d rather have Parker in that starting wing role. As a reminder, in 31 games last season once Parker came back from his own injury he averaged 12.6/4.9/1.9 with 48/38% splits. It didn’t help that he and his coach hated each other, but when he was a full time starter in 2016-17 he was a legit 20/6 guy who shot 49% from the field. He’s a guy that you can match up against slower bigs and let him attack the basket and create his own shot off the dribble, something that makes him unique in today’s small ball NBA.
That’s why if it’s me, and there is a real chance for the Bulls to snag a player like this, you do it. He’s just 23 years old and if his medicals check out I don’t see how he hurts the Bulls rebuild. I would think bringing him back home would get you a motivated Jabari Parker who we saw during the BOS series can be a pretty impactful player.
So Bulls fans, would you welcome a guy like Parker to your squad, and would it change your perception of Gar/Pax if they ponied up to pay both LaVine AND Jabari to big money deals?
Because it’s Friday, and you’re for sure looking at your clock, enjoy the obligatory highlight reel