As the Milwaukee Bucks wrapped up training camp practice early Wednesday afternoon, two players stayed on the court for extra work with assistant coaches Frank Johnson and Greg Foster. Together, they worked on shooting, finishing in the post, rim-running, pick-and-rolls and more during a full-speed session that lasted more than 45 minutes.

One of the players was center Greg Monroe.

The other was forward Jabari Parker.

Wearing a black tank top and black sweatpants, there were no visible signs Parker was still rehabbing from a torn left anterior cruciate ligament suffered less than eight months ago, his second such injury in three years.

You wouldn't know Parker was ailing by the way he ran the court, moving smoothly from end to end. You wouldn't know it from the way he set picks against invisible opponents and easily cut and rolled to the hoop. You wouldn't know it from the way he pivoted and moved his feet in the post while working against Foster and former Bucks star Vin Baker, each of whom took turns buffeting him with a pad as he worked.

And you definitely wouldn't know Parker was still more than four months away from his targeted February return by the way he threw down dunks.

At one point, Parker caught a pass, drove into the paint and delivered a hard shoulder through Baker's pad into his chest before he pivoted, stepped through and hammered down a right-handed slam.

"You look at him and say, 'Man, he's going to play tomorrow,' " Bucks coach Jason Kidd said. "That just shows you how good he looks and how hard he's been working. I think we're all excited by where he's at today. We all understand he still has some time to go before he's cleared to play, but he's doing everything to get himself back."

Khris Middleton watched part of the session from the sideline. Even though he's seen Parker's abilities in practice — Parker has participated in non-contact drills during training camp, which started Tuesday — Middleton is still amazed by what his teammate can do.

"It's very impressive," Middleton said. "He's a freak athlete. I joke around with him all the time saying, 'I can barely dunk now and you're already dunking off your ACL surgery.' He's a worker; he wants to be great, he wants to be one of the best players ever and he's showing you can't get that without working. He puts the work in."

Parker says the return of dunking to his repertoire has been a recent development. It's only been about a week and a half since he's been able to get up for those dunks, but even so, his explosiveness doesn't look far off from what he displayed last season before he was injured. He effortlessly slammed numerous times — off one foot and two — including jumping the gun once and dunking a couple reps before Johnson told him it was time.

While the dunks are new, the rest of his activities on Wednesday were not. He says he's been doing basketball-related work on the court since mid-August after being limited to running and weight lifting in the months prior.

For any casual observer, it looks apparent Parker is ahead of schedule. That, in fact, is the case according to Parker thanks in large part to him being in better shape this time around.

"I'm a little bit ahead just because my foundation is so good," he said. "When I tore my ACL the first time (in December 2014) I really didn't have a good platform, but now it was able to carry over."

As good as Parker looks and as well as he has progressed, neither he nor the Bucks are trying to rush anything. There's too much at stake for both sides.

With Parker in the final year of his rookie contract, the Bucks and his agent, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports & Entertainment, are in ongoing discussions about a possible contract extension, which would have to get done before the start of the season. If the two sides can't reach an agreement before that deadline, Parker would enter the offseason as a restricted free agent, with the Bucks able to match any offer to retain Parker's services.

On Monday, general manager Jon Horst praised Parker's work ethic during his second ACL rehab since joining the team. However, he also addressed the obvious by noting that Parker's injury history is certainly a factor in those discussions.

"Hopefully, the goal is to come to an extension agreement," Horst said. "If we don't, we want to be in a place where we can have the same type of productive conversations again as a restricted free agent with a player who we value significantly in our franchise."

For Parker, he's just focused on coming back completely healthy. As strong as he looks, he still has bad days and setbacks. He knows what this process is like and won't rush it.

"It's not going to be tempting to go out and do something because I have a time period where I need to be the best that I can be,” Parker said, noting that he still has benchmarks to hit, with the biggest and final hurdle still scheduled for February.

“Just taking it step-by-step."