I've been watching Parker for a long time. Trust me, he's the real deal. As for his shot not falling as well in the second half, so what? No player in the NBA hits every damm shot.
In his first game he went 8 for 10 overall and 3 for 3 from the three point line. Last night he went 9 for 18 overall and 4 for 7 from the three point line. To these old eyes, that's outstanding shooting. What are you, a cup is half empty guy? Must we look for the negatives in everything? I swear to god, sometimes I just don't understand people. After two games, Parker is shooting around 60% from the floor.
I’m not a “half cup empty” guy, I’m more of a “wait-and-see” guy. Its been two college games and while it’s enough to get a feel for a player’s style of play, its definitely not enough to make a judgment on how effective a player is going to be in the long run. He definitely had an impressive game but I’m going to hold off on starting the hype train for the time being
Everyone played in highschool once, you can only play against what's in front of you. If you can shoot it, you're probably going to be able to shoot it in college, especially if you're not undersized/unathletic, and work hard.
I’m certainly not blaming Parker for having a good game, just trying to pump the brakes a little before his coronation
Living off of jumpers becomes more difficult every single level you jump. There are bigger and faster athletes in College than in High School, and likewise even bigger and faster ones in the NBA. Every shot becomes more contested, every defense more advanced. Its not a simple 1:1 transition for shooters.
Parker was a good shooter in high school, certainly. He was also in another class athletically and size-wise. Now, as he goes through college competition (and NBA competition in the future), that athletic and size advantage diminishes considerably. Thus there is a renewed emphasis on his jumper as the crux of his offensive arsenal. I’m waiting to see if his jumper really is that good or if this is just a hot streak.
Hence the Beasley comparison. Off-court issues aside, Beasley’s problem was that he was undersized for his position (although he had considerable athletic gifts) and his jumper wasn’t good enough to make up for it. Beasley dominated college much like Parker is doing now, but couldn’t live up to the superior athletes in the NBA. He hasn’t had a single good year scoring the basketball in his entire career. And that’s before we even get to his off-court issues. On-court, Beasley was a disaster.
Ultimately, when you are a Jabari Parker size-wise and athletically, your game has to be meticulously good elsewhere if you want to be a superstar. Because that’s the hype coming in, that there are at least three franchise-type players in this draft (possibly more). There’s no doubt in my mind that Parker could walk onto an NBA court today and average at least 14 points a game. The question is, how much better than that can he go? Are we talking about a future 20ppg scorer? 25ppg? 30? If he wants to live up to the hype, his jumper has to be great, and we’re not talking about in the Luol Deng-good range. His jumper needs to be in the Pierce, Kobe, Prime Brandon Roy stratosphere.
I’m not ruling him out, but I’m not anointing him yet either. It’s a long college season ahead.
