Parker will progress in stages
NEW YORK - For Milwaukee Bucks forward Jabari Parker, Friday night was just the beginning.
He made his season debut in front of a sellout crowd at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, getting a standing ovation when he first checked in with 5 minutes, 25 seconds on the clock in the first quarter. During nearly 15 minutes of play, Parker collected 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting to go with three rebounds.
Now the challenge for him will be to sustain that level of production while he ramps up his playing time according to the plan the team has in place for him. That trajectory is expected to continue at 11 a.m. Sunday when the Bucks visit the Barclays Center for a pre-Super Bowl clash with the Brooklyn Nets.
“So far I know that I’m traveling with the team and I’ll play in one of the games, if that," Parker said of his availability for Sunday's game against the Nets followed by Tuesday's game against the New York Knicks to open the team's four-game road trip.
Interim head coach Joe Prunty thought Parker had a positive debut, but has continued his position of tempering his opinions about Parker's progress. He also hasn't shared much in the way of detailing the plan for Parker, only saying that the team has collectively put together a plan that includes certain stages and everyone will adhere to that blueprint.
On Friday night, Parker showed encouraging signs, looking every bit the same player he was before suffering a second torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last February. His lateral movements were good enough for Parker to — more often than not — stay in front of his man on defense.
Athletically, Parker demonstrated the burst and leaping abilities he's known for, including on a pair of dunks that didn't go down. One involved popping up for a dunk but failing to get the ball over the rim while the other featured him trying to jam over Knicks center Kyle O'Quinn, with Parker having plenty of height to do it but missing due to a foul by O'Quinn.
“If anything I like the statement that it had, just to try to go as hard as I can," Parker said.
While he was limited to 15 minutes Friday night and wasn't able to participate in the fourth quarter of a tight game, Parker's glad to be back in the mix. He knows he still has some hurdles to clear when it comes to getting more playing time, but taking the time to do that — while getting playing time at all – still beats the alternative.
“Any opportunity I get it beats being on the couch for three months at a time," he said. "Just grateful.”
Cleaning the glass: Friday's game was the Bucks' worst rebounding performance of the season, with the Knicks collecting 57 rebounds — the most by a Milwaukee opponent in regulation this season.
“We have to rebound the ball better," Prunty said. "That having been said, when you hold a team to 40% shooting there’s going to be a few more offensive rebounds or at least opportunities. As a team, that’s something we have to address and we’ve talked about.”
On Sunday, the Bucks will face one of the best rebounding teams in the NBA in the Nets, which rank fourth in rebounds per game at 45.3. The rebounding margin was tight between the two teams in their first meeting on Jan. 26, with Brooklyn owning a 45-44 advantage.
That mostly had to do with the Bucks shooting 51.8% from the field, which whittled down the Nets' chances of getting defensive rebounds. On the other end, the Nets went 33 of 89 from the field and collected 11 of their 56 missed shots.
As a team, the Bucks rank last in the NBA in rebounding at 38.7 per game, a number that is mostly held down by the team's reluctance to aggressively go after offensive rebounds. Milwaukee is second-to-last in offensive rebound percentage (19.1%) and only slightly below the league average in defensive rebound percentage (77.1%).