New Sacramento Kings small forward Jabari Parker won't make his team debut until after the All-Star break, according to head coach Luke Walton.
Parker is currently out with a shoulder injury. The Kings acquired the Chicago native from the Atlanta Hawks before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
Jabari Parker will make his Kings debut after the All-Star break. “It just makes more sense to wait,” Luke Walton said. Parker has had only one practice with Sacramento and will get two more coming out of the break.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) February 13, 2020
Parker played in 32 games for the Hawks this season. He averaged 15.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 50.4 percent from the field, 27.0 percent from beyond the arc and 73.6 percent from the free-throw line.
The second overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft out of Duke, Parker has career averages of 15.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists with the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards and Hawks.
The Kings are 21-32 on the season and are in 12th place in the Western Conference standings. Certainly, they have a lot of ground to make up if they want to make the playoffs for the first time since 2006.
Jabari Parker is expected to bolster the Kings' bench that has been lacking some spark. While he has struggled defensively over the past few years, Jabari's main selling point is his offensive skills — which Sacramento will look to utilize as they hope to keep the team competitive this second half of the 2019-20 campaign.
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