Jabari Parker
Best Case: Jabari Parker gets off the plane at Salt Lake International Airport and proclaims, “This is the place!” Members of the predominant faith local rejoice.
On the hardwood, Parker looks like the player he was before his most recent injury. He’s Carmelo-esque in his ability to get buckets; he’s a 20-plus point scorer, he hits threes, he penetrates and attacks the rack. More importantly, he remains healthy as he does it. It’s a thing of beauty.
The Mitchell-Parker-Gboert trio leads a Jazz Renaissance that results in annual 50-60 win seasons, a boatload of playoff games and many All-Star appearances for all three players.
Worst Case: He injured; same as it ever was. The Jazz max him in hopes of what I’ve described above, but he can’t stay on the floor and fans start to look at Parker’s deal in the same way they bemoaned Andrei Kirilenko’s big contract several years ago.
The Jazz are stuck with a $150-200 million dollar anchor…and not the good kind of anchor.
Next: Nikola Mirotic