No deal yet for restricted free agent Parker
As far as the summer goes, Friday is a busy day on the NBA calendar. For the first time, all 30 teams will be competing in the Las Vegas Summer League, which kicks off Friday. That includes the Milwaukee Bucks taking on the Detroit Pistons at 6 p.m. at Cox Pavilion.
But the games in Las Vegas aren’t the only thing happening in the NBA. The league’s free-agency moratorium period ends at 11 a.m., meaning teams and players will be able to put pen to paper and cement any oral agreements made since the new league year began July 1.
For the Bucks, the end of the moratorium means they will be free to sign forward Ersan Ilyasova, who agreed to a deal in the first hours of free agency. That deal is expected to be for three years and $21 million with the final year being non-guaranteed.
However, as contracts begin getting signed, there doesn’t seem to be a swift resolution coming between the Bucks and restricted free agent Jabari Parker, the most interesting and critical piece of Milwaukee’s summer puzzle.
As a restricted free agent, Parker is able to test the market for the first time following his rookie contract, but the Bucks have the right to match any off Parker signs with another team.
In the opening flurry of free agents agreeing to terms with teams, Parker was one of the noteworthy restricted free agents — along with Houston’s Clint Capela, Chicago’s Zach LaVine, Boston’s Marcus Smart, Portland’s Jusuf Nurkic and others — who have not yet been tied to any outside offers.
There’s still plenty of time Parker and those free agents to sign, but much of the money has dried up.
Where can Parker go?
In terms of outside teams, only the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls and Sacramento Kings are estimated to have enough cap space to draw Parker away from Milwaukee. Each team has approximately $18 million or more to offer.
Just because they have that space doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily use it on Parker.
The Kings are reportedly out on Parker and the Bulls have to sort out LaVine. These three teams could opt to use their cap space to absorb an expensive contract from another team via trade in exchange for young talent or future draft picks.
Any offer sheet extended to a restricted free agent must include two fully-guaranteed years, which would tie up significant salary for this year and next with any team that chooses to try to outbid the Bucks for Parker. Milwaukee, which is over the salary cap at $110.2 million in total salary, is facing a hard cap of $129.8 million and the luxury-tax threshold of $123.7 million.
What if the offers don’t come?
If the summer rolls along and Parker doesn’t net any offers, he’s left with a few options. He can take Milwaukee’s one-year, $4.3 million qualifying offer — complete with its no-trade clause — and become a free agent in 2019. He can also negotiate a deal with the Bucks or agree to a sign-and-trade.
Taking the qualifying offer would represent Parker betting big on himself.
If he can play well and stay healthy all season — which would be huge considering his twice-torn left ACL — he could set himself up for a big payday next year in free agency. That worked for players such as Matthew Dellavedova and Greg Monroe, who both took qualifying offers before getting sizable contracts from the Bucks.
However, if Parker doesn’t play well, doesn’t get enough minutes to prove himself or gets hurt, he could find himself in another difficult position next summer.
The cautionary example here is Nerlens Noel, who reportedly turned down a five-year, $70 million deal from the Dallas Mavericks last summer, took the qualifying offer, and after a lackluster season took a two-year, minimum deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder this week.
Another thing to consider is that as of July 4 more than half of the freeagent deals agreed upon this week were one-year commitments. With the cap going up about $8 million next summer, there could be a vast pool of free agents and still not enough money to go around, meaning Parker could be right back where he started next summer, though he wouldn’t have the restriction of the Bucks potentially matching an offer.
Bucks make hires
The Bucks announced the addition of assistant coach Josh Longstaff on Thursday, which refills Mike Budenholzer’s staff at six following the departure of Sean Sweeney to Detroit. Longstaff, who has been linked to the Bucks for more than a week, was the head coach of the Erie BayHawks — Atlanta’s G League affiliate — last season.
The Bucks also announced that former player, TV analyst and assistant coach Vin Baker is being retained as the team’s basketball operations associate/ director of program development. It’s a role that will involve working with and mentoring players at the NBA and G League levels within the franchise.
In addition to those moves, the Bucks hired Zach Peterson as head video coordinator and Schuyler Rimmer as player development and video assistant. Both were part of Budenholzer’s extended staff last year in Atlanta.