Duke’s Jabari Parker doesn’t back away from Carmelo Anthony comparison

We had Rob Dauster of NBC’s CollegeBasketballTalk on the PBT Podcast recently and when the topic of Jabari Parker came up Dauster mentioned Carmelo Anthony — a polished scorer with the ability to play the four, score inside, or stretch the floor out to the arc.

Dauster isn’t the only one to say that, it’s becoming a more common comparison — and one Parker is not backing away from.

Parker — who DraftExpress currently has as the No. 3 prospect in the upcoming draft — welcomed the comparison, speaking to Zagsblog after Parker’s Duke handily beat UCLA at Madison Square Garden Thursday.

“Yeah, it’s a good comparison,” Parker said after going for 23 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists as Duke beat UCLA, 80-63, in front of a capacity crowd that included Bruce Springsteen, Tyson Chandler and Tim Hardaway Jr.
“He mastered the fundamentals. He’s always good at his craft. He works on it and that’s a person I’ve been looking up to, so yeah, that’s good compliment.”

UCLA’s coach Steve Alford also made the Anthony comparison without being prompted.

“I know we’re in New York City, but there’s a lot of Melo in him as far as guy that can stretch you to the 3-point line,” Alford said. “He can drive the basketball. He creates space off the dribble to get jump shots. He can take you to the post, so I just think he’s a very, very talented, gifted player. And you don’t see a lot who are this polished 10, 11 games into their freshman year.”

Parker comes in with an NBA ready body and game — he can finish inside, has range on his jumper, can shoot off the bounce or off the catch, can play in the half court or transition.

His game is a great fit for college, but there are a few questions about how it translates to the NBA. He’s not a strong defender (insert your own “he is just like‘Melo” joke here), and he’s a tweaner who could find more athletic, longer players on him at the next level.

Still, if he can have anything close to ‘Melo’s career… that’s not bad. Not bad at all.