A 'franchise player" (of which there are about 10 in the NBA) can typically do many of, if not all of, the following: shoot from distance (kiiiiiiiinda important in today's NBA), pass, rebound, defend. Parker's not good at any of them.
Where do you want to put the goalposts here, ssspence. Are we talking about whether Parker is one of the 10 best players in the NBA, or are we talking about whether there's "evidence at all that he's going to be a good professional basketball player?"
Put 'em wherever you want.
Statement: You compared him to young LBJ and 'Melo. Reality: laughable
Statement: byennie claimed the jury is still out on whether he's a franchise player. Reality: laughable
Statement: I questioned whether there's any evidence that he'll be a good NBA player. Reality: There isn't any yet. Good means above average, as far as I'm concerned. He's below average in many ways, and he's not athletic enough to improve dramatically. He's got some scoring chops driving to the hoop. That's it so far.
Sadly for Parker, I tend to agree with all of this.
I'm not counting out the possibility that Parker could become a solid NBA player one day, but the chance of him ever become a great player is pretty low.
I'm thinking that if he could improve his defense and three point shooting (not out of the question) then I feel he could become a Jared Dudley type, maybe a Joe Johnson absolute best case.
The problem is that there just isn't a lot of success typically in the NBA for swingmen with mediocre athleticism - guys like that needs to be incredibly skilled and need to have a killer instinct (e.g. Pierce, Melo) in order to be able to become stars in this league.
Parker has some skills - enough to be a solid career starter I think, but even that is under threat if he doesn't learn to play at least NEAR respectable defense.
The thing that saves Parker IMHO is that he has good size for a wing and he's a good rebounder for a wing. Problem is that once you move him to PF (to make up for his lack of athleticism) then he becomes a PF with average size and sub-par rebounding...and he still has major defensive limitations.
From day one, long before the draft, I always said that I thought Parker was being massively overrated. Parker was never that athletic, but he was big enough and strong enough to dominate guys at the college level. NBA is a whole other ball game, and guys at his position in the NBA tend to be just as big/strong if not moreso...and everybody has skills.
Only guy on the Bucks I'd be that interested in would probably be Monroe, followed by Giannis and then probably Middleton. Nobody else there interests me that much.
