Boston Celtics: 3 potential Jabari Parker signing side effects

In a fairly surprising move, the Boston Celtics picked up Jabari Parker off of the free-agent market on Friday night. It came at the expense of Moritz Wagner, who had been collecting DNP-CDs in recent weeks after failing to make much of an impact in his short stint in green and white.

Hardwood Houdini knew that either Wagner or Luke Kornet would find their way to the chopping block if Danny Ainge were to make a move. Isaiah Thomas might have been our preferred target, but Parker is enough of a wild card to give Danny Ainge props for taking a gamble.

Needless to say, a former #2 pick who has gone through major surgery and its recovery (ACL tear in 2017) qualifies as a boom-or-bust scenario, and this could go one of several ways.

In the aftermath of the C’s first in-season signing since Jonathan Gibson in 2019, HH ponders the repercussions of Parker being Boston-bound:

Boston Celtics-Jabari Parker side effect #1: Alleviating pressure from the “Jays”

All things considered, Jabari Parker is someone who can make things easier for the “Jays” if he can regain his scoring form of even just a season ago (but what feels like a lifetime ago) with the Atlanta Hawks.

In the ATL, Parker collected 15 points in 26 minutes per game. Playing with Trae Young undoubtedly aided in his ascension to his second-best scoring output of his career.

Then again, the free-flowing, isolation-heavy offense Brad Stevens runs around Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum could flow seamlessly to Parker taking over those reps with the second unit.

Or, he could soak up minutes at the 4 and alleviate Jayson Tatum’s defensive exertion. Parker is not the most fleet of foot at this point in his career, but he’s much better suited to bang in the post at 245 pounds than Tatum is at 210.