Jabari Parker Reportedly Seeking Max Deal

Jabari Parker is coming off yet another season-ending knee injury, but the 22-year-old is reportedly asking for max dollars.

Parker, whose name has appeared in trade rumors this summer, put up averages of 20.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists while shooting 49 percent from the field and 37 percent from three-point land before tearing his ACL in mid-February.

October 16 is the deadline for rookie scale contract extensions, and the Milwaukee Bucks are on the clock.

Per the Racine Journal Times:

If the Bucks had a better record at the time, most observers believe the 6-foot-8 Parker – the No. 2 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft – would have joined his teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo at the All-Star Game in New Orleans.

 

But Parker’s stellar season was prematurely cut short at 51 games when he tore the left anterior cruciate ligament for the second time in his young career.

 

Since then Parker has been diligently rehabbing and, by all accounts, is on target to returning to action this season, quite possibly in February. Parker and the Bucks have publicly expressed confidence he’ll return to old form and be as good, or even better, than he was prior to the second injury setback.

 

With salaries having skyrocketed over the summer, thanks in large measure to an extremely lucrative television contract, multiple sources claim Parker will be seeking a contract similar to the one he expected to receive prior to his latest injury – a max contract of five years for anywhere between $146 million (25 percent of the salary cap) to $175M (30 percent of the cap).

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