If Jabari Parker is available, the Suns should make an offer

Chris Sheridan of Get more Sports noted on Sunday, June 17, that he believes the Milwaukee Bucks will trade Eric Bledsoe and Jabari Parker because Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn’t like playing with either of them. If this is so, the Phoenix Suns should take a long hard look at Parker.

With the Phoenix Suns heading into the NBA Draft this week and free agency soon after, they have three positions in desperate need of improving: point guard, power forward, and center.

Of course the Suns do look to be improving the center position with the first overall pick of DeAndre Ayton, and the hope is that they will also be able to upgrade point guard in the draft as well, although potentially even in free agency or trade (do not forget that Brandon Knight is still on the roster as well and appears to be the team’s best point guard heading into the season), but at the moment it is unclear – if not unlikely – that he will be the point guard of the future.

However, the one of those three positions that are least likely to be upgraded through the draft and free agency is power forward.

While Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss are still on the roster, one of whom at the moment is projected to be the opening night starter, there is a growing worry throughout the Valley of the Suns that neither fit the bill as the long-term solution, and there is a chance that neither may be starter quality at any point in their career anyway.

That makes the rumor that Chris Sheridan discusses so interesting.

Through the four years of his playing career, Jabari Parker has at times looked fantastic. Tall, athletically gifted, and now a solid 3-point shooter, a healthy Jabari would be every general manager’s dream.

However, he has also suffered through two ACL tears, each of which do appear to have taken a toll on his knees and at the moment has slowed him down somewhat.

Now, he is still a player that has tremendous upside if healthy, and with the addition of his 3-point shot, along with his still spectacular leaping ability, Parker is a starting power forward in this league.

Many fans are and should be worried about Parker’s health, and that worry among GM’s may be enough to scare most teams away for good. He missed the first 50 games of last season in his recovery from his second knee surgery, and when he returned, he looked less athletic and a little sluggish laterally.

Check out this highlight reel from 2017-18 to see for yourself.

While watching that video though, one thing struck me as a Phoenix Suns fan: he looked a lot  like Amar’e Stoudemire after he returned from his micro-fracture surgery. Still athletic, but tentative. Explosive, but not as quick to the basket. He could leap, but he wasn’t flying around the court quite like he did prior to the injury.

What Stoudemire did to resolve those issues was his addition of a mid-range game. He became a sniper from 15-20 feet out, and with his height was able to get that shot off pretty much whenever he pleased.

Jabari Parker came back this past season with a similar change, only his new addition was stretched all the way out to the 3-point line.

Although he had shot 36.5% from 3 in 2016-17, Parker took that game up a notch and averaged 38.3% in his 31 games upon his return in 2018.

For a team like the Phoenix Suns who have been looking for a stretch-four, there might not be anyone better than Parker out there who is potentially available.

This offseason the Suns are looking to maximize talent and age with contracts for any player that they seek in free agency and trade. General Manager Ryan McDonough has stated that he is mostly looking for a player with a combination of an affordable salary, and who is no older than 25.

Jabari is a restricted free agent, which of course means that the Milwaukee Bucks have the right to match any offer that he signs with an opposing team.

However, there is a good chance that due to his injury history (and the slight number of franchises that has cap space to work with), that that the Phoenix Suns might have an upper hand.

Not only do they boast the best medical staff in the Association (if not North American professional sports), but the Suns are one of only a handfull of teams that have the cap space to make an offer to Parker outright, as well as assets to offer in the event of a sign-and-trade.

If the Bucks are willing to part with him (depending on their plans in trade and free agency – and if other teams are involved in the bidding process) and they are willing to let him go for nothing, then the Suns could make a contract offer for him outright, very likely without an competition.

They might be able to get him at around $18-20M a year for a few years (which is well below a max contract) then make space on the roster by trading Marquese Chriss (who would be redundant), with Tyson Chandler and/or Jared Dudley.

They too could offer a sign-and-trade to the Bucks (which is what Sheridan specifically mentioned), which might better solidify their opportunity to land him. In this case, they would trade Chriss, among others, to the Bucks rather than attempting to deal with multiple teams.

Next: Counterpoint: If Parker is available, the Suns should stay far away

Without knowing what the market truly is for Parker, it is difficult to speculate on what it might cost to acquire him, both in terms of salary and traded assets. A player of Parker’s skill-set would seem to be a hot commodity, one that probably would never otherwise even be considered as a tradable commodity before the end of a rookie contract had it not been for his injuries.

This could be the perfect opportunity to take a somewhat inexpensive flyer on a potential star in free agency, fillling one of the three biggest holes in the starting lineup, and doing so with a player who is only 22-years-old.

Parker’s injury history is certainly a concern, but if Parker is willing to take a three-year deal (and I would even extend to him a team or mutual option for a fourth year), then the Suns would not be saddled with his contract for too long, and if he needed to be let go in three years, then the core would still only be in the early process of their primes, and the team would still be able to both move on from and build with the newly acquired cap space, without hurting the team’s growth.