At Duke, Jabari Parker got a lot of criticism for his weak defense.
In the NBA, he’s kind of made it official, saying that “I just stick to my strengths. Look at everybody in the league. They don’t pay players to play defense. There’s only two people historically that play defense. I’m not going to say I won’t, but to say that’s a weakness is like saying that’s everybody’s weakness. Because I’ve scored 30 and 20 on a lot of guys that say they play defense.”
Well that’s kind of correct. No one is paying him for his defense and sticking to your strengths is a good idea but as Michael Jordan resoundingly proved, and Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant underscored later, if you can play on both ends, you’re going to be a huge force in the game.
And as far as getting paid for defense goes, the Celtics are apparently willing to pay Marcus Smart a significant amount and he really doesn’t do much offense.
It’s also worth mentioning that we live in the Age of Analytics now and whatever anyone thinks about his particular skill set, it may or may not add up the way he thinks it does. Parker is a hugely talented player but being good on both ends is always a plus and more so today than ever before because you can be measured in so many different ways now.
On a related note, here’s Jabari’s dad, Sonny, on his son’s return to his hometown of Chicago.
- Jabari Parker unafraid of history, expectations that come with Chicago’s homegrown stars: “There’s no fear”
- Jabari Parker passionately defends Derrick Rose as ‘a legend, no matter what’
- Here’s a smart justification of the Jabari Parker deal
- Jabari Parker loves the Bulls, buckets and Derrick Rose, but maybe not the biggest fan of defense
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