Karalis: Maybe it's time to eat crow about Jabari Parker

OK, so maybe I wasn't entirely ... completely ... 100% ... right about Jabari Parker.

When his signing was announced last Friday night, I went on a run of exaggerated tweeting about my confusion over the deal. I admit, I laid it on a little thick because the signing seemed so inconsequential.

Plus, you know, it was Friday night and the Celtics were off after beating the Lakers the night before. I had just settled in for a night of ESPN basketball and was ready to get my social media jokes off.

But it turns out that Parker might not just be a complete end-of-bench, break glass in case of emergency kind of guy. As we all roll our eyes at an injury report more never-ending than the breadsticks at Olive Garden, Parker has taken advantage of the opportunity to give the Boston Celtics 15 somewhat productive minutes off the bench.

So it's time eat some crow. Not the whole crow, mind you. Maybe, like, a wing. He’s still not going to take minutes away from the regulars when (if?) the team is fully healthy, but there might be some times where he gets the call over Grant Williams or Semi Ojeleye. 

“We're hoping that we can do with Jabari a little bit like we did with Evan Turner,” Danny Ainge said earlier in the day. “(Turner) was the number two pick in the draft and started his career out well and was without a place really and came into the Celtics and played very well for us and got himself a big contract with Portland Trail Blazers. So we’re hoping we can help Jabari and he can help us.”

So far, Parker has been able to keep things simple. Offensively, he's doing a fine job of making decent reads and playing off his new teammates. He and Marcus Smart have already been developing a little bit of chemistry. 



In a world where a lot of guys will flare out to the corners no matter what, I will admit that it warms my heart to see someone make such a simple, right play.

First of all, wow Smart for that spin and pass. Secondly, Parker does take a bit of a circuitous route here so what could have been a magnificent alley-oop dunk for, say Robert Williams, is a simple catch and finish for Parker.

Alright I'm nitpicking. The point is he made the right play, took advantage of a massive defensive lapse, and finished the play.

I won't pick nits on this next play. I promise.



Backdoor cuts are gorgeous basketball because they require timing and awareness and when two guys are on the same page, it can produce wonderful results.

Smart was perfectly patient. He used the Grant Williams screen to get into the lane (and Williams wisely just backs off when he recognizes what's happening) drawing Dario Saric up just enough for Parker to make his cut.

Parker is still slower than most, but he still has good recognition and can make the right play. When he's playing off of better players and asked to keep it simple, he's able to accomplish a lot of what's asked of him.

He'll still be a problem defensively if he's caught in a bad cross-match or if he's too far out on the perimeter in a one-on-one setting, but he's also actually making some plays. That bar is admittedly low, but he’s shown at least a little hustle. The Celtics are switching a lot with him, and he's holding his own. 

In his best defensive effort of the night, he switched onto Saric, ices the pick-and-roll (forces the ball handler to the baseline into a trap), recovered onto Torrey Craig, switched onto Chris Paul and kept him pinned against the sideline, and then rebounded Craig's miss after Paul gave it up.

(I'd show it to you, but my recording of that particular part of the game isn't working. Trust me, it was very cool to see)

He was active and trying very hard, which is not something that has always described Parker.

I still won’t be surprised by a stretch of DNP’s. The return of Robert Williams, Evan Fournier, and Jaylen Brown will sap the available minutes for Parker, but if he continues to do a few simple things well, then I’ll be the first to stand up and admit that this signing was much better than I ever anticipated.