Giannis Antetokounmpo Has Clear Path to Thrive in Jabari Parker's Absence
When it comes to sustainable success, the Milwaukee Bucks have little in the way of margin for error. From the financial stresses of a small-market city to the subsequent struggle of finding and keeping top-tier talent, the Bucks are one NBA machine that could do without the occasional wayward wrench.
Which makes the season-ending knee injury to Jabari Parker—the No. 2 pick in last June’s draft and one of the unquestioned cornerstones of Milwaukee’s current youth movement—all the more unfortunate.
Even if the Bucks’ playoff prospects were doomed to derail, at least fans would have plenty of spectacular silver linings to show for it, many courtesy of the kid from nearby Chicago.
Instead, the Milwaukee faithful are forced to lean on one caveat-crutch above all: With Parker out of the mix, Giannis Antetokounmpo has an even clearer path to NBA stardom.
Not that it’ll be an overnight proposition. In the six games since Parker first went down on December 17, Antetokounmpo is averaging a mere 10.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists in just under 30 minutes—albeit at an impressive 53.5 percent clip, per NBA.com.
The Bucks have dropped four of six during that stretch, making the team’s hold on the Eastern Conference’s sixth seed all the more tenuous.
Of course, with Parker on the mend and Milwaukee still a piece or two away from a rounded franchise foundation, one could argue whether crashing the playoffs is a prospect worth entertaining at all.
Expectations aside, plucky seems to be an indispensable gene in these Bucks’ DNA. Good luck telling Jason Kidd—as hypercompetitive a hardwood combatant as ever laced them up—to pump the breaks on his boys’ behalf.
Still, there’s a lingering sense that, as far as the Greek Freak is concerned, Kidd could stand to be a bit looser with the reins. Antetokounmpo is logging fewer than three minutes more per game than he did a season ago, after all.
It’s as clear a sign as any that the 20-year-old Athenian wunderkind still has a ways to go before commanding the full faith and credit of his Hall of Fame coach.
Woeful three-point shooting (18 percent as of this writing), cavalier defensive habits, a tendency for his body to write checks his mind can’t quite cash—flaws abound for Antetokounmpo, minor as they are, terrifying and tantalizing as the ultimate trajectory might seem.
All in a year’s work, as far as Kidd’s concerned. The coach's words from a recent interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Charles F. Gardner:
"His foundation is getting stronger. He's understanding what he's capable of doing. He's still learning the game. ... He's learning how to play without having to score the ball, say shooting threes or shooting jump shots. He can live at the free-throw line. Some of the top players in this league, that's what they do.
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Three years ago, Antetokounmpo was barely a blip on the international basketball radar. In fact, much of his predraft scouting video looked more like film from a middle school Christmas tournament than footage of a future NBA superstar.
Save, of course, for the kid with the gazelle gait and cheetah speed surging down the floor and flying across the lane—the still-unfolding code of a consummate basketball specimen.
By draft day 2013, the Greek Freak had rocketed up the ranks, a late growth spurt serving to further tantalize an already-slack-jawed public. Taken 15th overall, Antetokounmpo was exactly the kind of low-risk, high-reward reach that a team like Milwaukee—moribund and reeling seemingly always—needed to make.
Eighteen months later, the Bucks’ big Greek gambit continues to pay off handsomely, albeit in a manner more steady than incendiary.
Which, as Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman underscored, might mean Giannis eventually taking a bit of a backseat to a healthy, hell-bent Parker:
"On the other hand, I see Antetokounmpo as more of a complementary or opportunistic scorer than a go-to one capable of taking over stretches of a game. Until that jumper comes around, it's going to be tough for him to continue relying on athleticism and attacking night after night.
Then again, if Antetokounmpo starts finding ways to generate perimeter offense, you can forget about it—you won't find many defenders who'd be able to evenly match up.
But he's got a long way to go to get there, while Parker's path to All-Star status shouldn't be as laborious, given how little maintenance is needed to improve his already sharp skill set.
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Whatever the ultimate pecking order, it’s clear the Bucks—new ownership in tow and pressure to remain in Milwaukee ratcheting up near on the daily—have little choice but to stake their still influx future on their pair of fresh-faced forwards.
As general manager John Hammond acknowledged during a recent exclusive with NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper, even a bit of catch-up may be in order:
"Time is a factor. The fact that they're going to miss that time on the court together. But you can see it. You can feel it. You talk about those guys position wise. What's Giannis? Is he the power forward? Is he the small forward? And what's Jabari? I think they're both forwards and they're going to be able to play together…Yeah, there's time loss. But we'll make up for that.
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With Parker, Antetokounmpo and paint-hawking center Larry Sanders all signed through at least the 2015-16 season, Milwaukee’s frontcourt of the future is all but cast in steel.
And while the Bucks might be content to take a wait-and-see approach with blossoming point guard Brandon Knight, for a team long considered something of an NBA backwater, the current core—pocks and palls and all—is nothing if not a keeper.
Parker’s loss is bound to cast Milwaukee somewhat adrift. Real though the opportunity may be to cobble some semblance of consistent depth in his absence, such bright sides are no substitutes for the kind of chemistry any team, particularly one this young and impressionable, must cultivate in order to succeed.
All the more important, then, that Antetokounmpo not deign to shy away from the opportunity before him—that he seize the next great step up one of the NBA's most distinctly cloud-covered ladders. However shrouded in mystery the ultimate peak may still be.
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