Boston Celtics-Jabari Parker side effect #2: A high-octane second unit is born
If you look at the scoring potential in the second unit–again, assuming Parker looks more like last year’s form than 2020-21’s–excitement should be the emotion that your brain processes immediately thereafter.
Evan Fournier has been in the NBA’s Health and Safety Protocols, and may be deployed off the pine in his return. Why slow down Team Shamrock in the starting lineup now?
With Fournier and Parker, were talking about two men capable of adding a third star’s scoring output. Defensive sacrifices would come with it, but Robert Williams is a nice mistake-eraser to make up for it.
When the playoffs roll around, if Parker is in the rotation, there will be plenty of minutes to be shared with Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum, too. Truly, the ace in the hole aspect of the former Duke star being Beantown-bound is the potential improvement of a Cs second unit that has seen a fair share of disappointment in 2020-21.
Scoring could be at a premium from the C’s bench, which is not something pundits were saying in the bubble postseason.