The Atlanta Hawks reached an agreement on a two-year, $13 million contract with Jabari Parker on Monday. The second year is a player option for Parker, who was the No. 2 overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2014 NBA Draft.
Parker averaged 12.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals in the first 25 games of his rookie year, but he went down with a season-ending ACL tear on Dec. 15. He returned to play 76 games in his sophomore campaign, averaging 14.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.
In Parker’s third season, he was averaging 20.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.0 spg when he tore his ACL again. The injury caused him to miss most of the 2017-18 season, too.
Parker made his return on Feb. 2 of 2018, scoring 12 points in 15 minutes of playing time as a reserve. He started only three of 31 regular-season games, averaging 12.6 ppg.
Following the 2017-18 season, Parker signed a contract with the Chicago Bulls worth $40 million over two years. The second year of the deal was a team option, however. Parker started 17 of 39 games for the Bulls, averaging 14.3 points and 6.2 rpg.
On Feb. 6 of 2019, Chicago traded Parker and Bobby Portis to the Washington Wizards for Otto Porter and a 2023 second-round pick. Parker played in 25 games for the Wizards, averaging 15.0 points and a career-best 7.2 rpg. He also shot at a career-high 52.3 percent clip from the field.
Nevertheless, Washington declined to pick up the team option for $20 million.
After inking Parker this morning, Atlanta general manager Travis Schlenk made another trade. The Hawks shipped Omari Spellman to the Golden State Warriors for Damian Jones and a second-round draft pick.
Stadium’s Shams Charania was the first to report the trade.
In Spellman’s rookie season out of Villanova, he averaged 5.9 points and 4.2 rpg for the Hawks. He turns 22 later this month.
Jones just turned 24 on June 30 and will be entering his fourth season in The Association. The former two-time All-SEC selection at Vanderbilt won two NBA rings despite playing in only 25 games in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
Jones started in 22 of the Warriors’ first 24 games this past year, averaging 5.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.0 blocked shots per game while averaging 17.1 minutes of playing time. Jones made 71.6 percent of his field-goal attempts.
He went down with a torn left pectoral muscle on Dec. 1, causing him to miss the rest of the regular season. Jones returned in the Western Conference finals and played sparingly in four postseason games.
In other NBA news today, the Lakers signed shooting guard Avery Bradley to a two-year deal worth $9.7M.