A Mad Men guide to the 2018-19 NBA Season

“People tell you who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.”  — Chicago Bulls

Jabari Parker has been in the league for four years. Over that time, according to Ben Falk’s Expected Wins metric on Cleaning the Glass – a tool that measures the effect a player has on a team’s win total over the course of an 82-game season – Parker made the Bucks worse by 22 games his rookie year, then by two games his sophomore campaign, then by 13 games in each of the last two seasons.

Milwaukee has been particularly atrocious on defense when Parker plays, but then again, defense isn’t his forte. If you don’t believe me, just ask him.

This is what Jabari Parker is. He is not going to change. Those who point to the modicum of effort he put forth on D during a few games during last season’s playoffs and attempt to use it as evidence that there is a complete player lurking somewhere within need to re-assess their standards.

Yet, here are the Bulls, coming off the closest thing you can have to a feel-good season where the result is 27 wins, kicking the tires on Parker. They will pair him with Zach LaVine, another one-way player who does little to help his team if he doesn’t have the ball.

Neither is Chicago’s best offensive player; that would be Lauri Markkanen, the man the organization should be handing the keys to instead of a spot wedged in a crowded back seat.

A young Phil Jackson couldn’t make chicken salad out what Fred Hoiberg has been handed. The signs are there for anyone who wants to see them. Seems like it’s easier for the Bulls’ brass to hear what they want instead.