Brandon Jennings 55 - Not a Sign of a Great Point Guard

I googled Brandon Jennings name today and for some reason this article came up. I read it. And I’m sorry I did.

Did you even watch the game? Are you reporting on something? Beacause to me it seems like your opinion is based on an NBA TV article, and a yahoo article quote. And that you watched him in summer league. No one who watched the game or have actually seen Jennings play an NBA game woul say that. If you would’ve watched, you would have seen him looking for Bogut the entire first half down low, and when that didn’t leave them in the lead at half, then he started to look for his offense because the defense was slacking. It was pretty amazing to watch actually, in that 3rd everything was falling. And have you not seen his speed and ability to get to the cup? His ability to absorb contact for such a slender guy?

So let me get this straight, he’s not a leader and selfish because he looks to score when the opportunity presents itself? If you want to talk about his unselfishness, watch the Bucks Nuggets game from this week, where he had a wide open breakaway lay-in, and he decided to drop for Hakim Warrick instead.

And this:
“How many times have we seen young studs come in and show they could score the ball and how many times have they proven themselves to be me-first ballers that eventually alienate their teammates and fade away to supporting roles.”

Who? Who are you talking about? What rookie has scored 55 and faded into obscurity? Right now with Redd out, the only other legit option is Bogut, so of course the guy going to look for his offense if his team is down and he can take advantage of a matchup.

And this:
Allen Iverson was without a doubt the most successful of this breed and Brandon is no Allen and look where AI is now at age 34 compared to the 35 year old Steve Nash.

Yes and how many NBA Finals has Steve Nash been to compared to Iverson? Besides AI situation is different. When has Jennings refused to come off the bench? When has he skipped out on practice? If you want to talk about selfishness, why don’t you look to your boy Amare. Stoudemire was whining about touches in Terry Porter’s system last season when he was the team’s leading scorer.

Man, they shouldn’t let random Suns fans have a blog. Oh and by the way, in case you’re wondering, I’m not a Bucks supporter boosting Jennings, I just actually saw the performance on Saturday and thought it was spectacular.

Are Nate Archibald and Oscar Robertson not great point guards because they looked to score?

Sorry to go on at such great length, but it pisses me off that they let anyone have a blog, even when it’s clearly based on nothing.

I award this article no points, and we’re all dumber for having read it.

what a well thought out and organized response in this point guard issue. thanks for the insight!

I agree with much of Frank’s points – especially about the team needing him to step up and score in this particular game.

I wouldn’t read too much in the “disrespect” quote. That’s a common mentality for young (or older) players and a way many coaches use to reach them – the disrespect card can be very useful to get a player (or a team) to execute more aggressively. He was probably just regurgitating something Skiles told to him in the huddle during the game.

As for him being brash and cocky, I don’t see a problem with that either. He’s being coached by one of the most brash and cocky point-guards in the history of the game anyway.

In terms of skill-set, he still has, like any other 20 year old point-guard, lots to learn about how to run a team. It takes time to learn and I have no reason to believe he can’t learn it. I can’t think of a single point-guard that at his age wasn’t more of a “creator” than a “floor-general” – Nash, Stockton or Deron Williams included and had a tendency to over-dribble or a good notion of how to control the tempo of the game, where to go in each possession, etc. But unless I’m very wrong, he has the instincts – he looks for cutters, he tries to get the ball down low, he retreats when the play isn’t there .

The Bucks had in the recent past two guys who were able to put up numbers and look good – Mo Williams and Ramon Sessions – but that, IMO, weren’t nowhere close to where Jennings already is. They don’t have a clue about how to run an offence, they are SGs in PG bodies (in Sessions case a SG who can’t shoot) but Jennings is a quite different player, IMO.

In spite of his numbers, right now I think Jennings is more of a passer than a scorer- he’s really good finding passing angles, inclusively the tough ones to identify, and executing, putting the ball “between the numbers”.

But what clearly differentiates Jennings from someone like AI, IMO, is his attitude and work ethic. A friend of mine (coincidentally a Bucks fan, I must talk to her about this developments) has close ties to some guys of the FO of Jennings team in Italy and she kept telling me last season how they were awed by his work ethic and attitude – the kid was a workaholic and the ultimate pro. And it definitely shows – one year ago he wasn’t able to hit a shot (especially off the dribble) and to run or defend the screenball. In Europe we spend an awful lot of time practising those things and he’s making jumpers and running the high pick’n’roll with Bogut brilliantly. He’s really matured a lot as a basketball player last season and during the off-season. And he’s aesthetically enjoyable to see running the open court.

Oh, btw, talking about Bogut, it’s a shame that all this Jennings hype is hiding his own development. I thought Bogut was already playing very well in the last 1/3 of the 07/08 season. He started last season magnificently, especially in the defensive end and on the boards, till he went down with the injury, so I’m not surprised a bit how he’s playing right now. His rebounding and defence are top-notch: right now I think only Dwight Howard and an in-form Garnett are better defensive bigs than Bogut. He isn’t flashy and I guess that’s the reason why nobody is talking about this (the other day I wrote that Bogut was on his way to deserve DPOY considerations and I got laughed), but he’s a freak thinking the game, contesting shots, closing driving lanes, moving his feet around, getting rebounding position… the way he draws charges is lovely. He’s been a bigger factor than Jennings in the Bucks season, I believe.

And I must have been one of the 4 persons in the universe predicting that the Bucks would make the playoffs (in fact, I have them making the 2nd round). They’re one of the top defensive and rebounding teams in the league: they have 2 elite defenders, one inside and one on the perimeter (Bogut and LRMAM), a few above-average ones (Delfino, Bell, Ilyasova) and then play a few guys who are so pesky, dedicated or experienced that they end up contributing positively on that end of the floor (Jennings, Ridnour, Thomas, Gadzuric). Their only subpar defenders are Warrick and Redd, but with Skiles as a coach, they’ll have to bust their asses out there. Defense and rebounding don’t make a title contender, but it’s basically impossible to miss the POs if you’re really good in those chapters of the game, no matter how terrible you are offensively.

I don’t disagree with the subject line of this article, but the author misses the point of Jennings’ game.

I did not see the 55-point game, but come on. Any player playing any position who is that hot should take shots. And if they keep going in, that player should keep shooting.

I have seen Jennings three times this season. Not once has he tried to impose his will as a shooter or scorer in the first half. In all three games he ran his team’s offense and deferred to others. In no way did he look like a shoot first point guard.

In the first game I saw, he did little offensively in the first half, scoring 2 points. The Bucks trailed the entire first half and were down 11 entering the third quarter. Jennings came out in the second half, clearly looking to turn the game around. He scored 19 in that quarter, including 9 straight at one point. He did not force shots. He played within the offense. His offensive outburst came as Micheal Redd left with a sore knee and did not return. With Redd out and the Bucks lacking scoring, he took over and bludgeoned the Pistons with his shooting, penetration and disruptive defense. He turned the game around and the Bucks won easily.

In the next game, the Bucks routed the Knicks from the start. Jennings scored 17 on 7-16 shooting, 0-2 from the arc. He played a solid but unspectacular offensive game. The Bucks did not need anything more from him.

The third game was against Denver. Jennings got Bogut involved early, as Bogut scored 8 or 9 points early in the first quarter. Jennings did little in that first period, but scored a flurry of points in the second, totaling a dozen or so at half time. In a close game, Jennings came out in the third quarter, took over the game and built a Bucks lead with his offense. He scored 32 points shooting 11-19, 2-2 from the 3-pt arc. He was 8-8 from the foul line, all of those coming as the Bucks were protecting a slim lead in the final seconds.

In all three games, Jennings did the things that he needed to do for his team to win. He does not force shots or dominate the ball. He is very unlike Iverson in that respect. His shot selection has been impeccable. Almost all of his shots have been wide open, because he creates so much space with his quickness (note the lack of foul shots taken – he doesn’t get to the line because he is not taking contested shots). The only weakness in his shooting thus far has been that some of his shots are a bit early in the shot clock when the team is trying to milk a lead.

Jennings is a rookie with a lot to learn. 55 points in one game does not make him an All-Star or a good point guard. But the kid has shot 60% from the field the last two games (32-53). He has made 9 of 10 from the 3-point line. He has led his team to four straight wins. When defenses sag, good point guards take advantage by taking those shots. The remarkable thing that I see in Jennings is his ability to turn it on seemingly at will, and then go back to being a facilitator.

It would be a mistake to conclude that the ability to score makes Jennings a great point guard. It would be equally wrong to assume that the ability to score prevents him from being a great point guard.

This article reeks of it.

“it’s not about this game…where he was great…against virtually no big men and a slack defense but he was great in this game.”

Right, let’s discount one of the best performances by a rookie in NBA history because he was playing against a terrible defense. He has to be the first rookie ever to play against a terrible defense. In fact, every player who goes against Golden State should put up similar numbers. While we’re at it, let’s take Kobe’s 81 off the books because he was playing the Raptors. Regardless of who he was playing, it was an epic performance. He didn’t just play great basketball, he played pristine basketball.

By indicting him for his scoring, you obviously didn’t watch the game. The Bucks were flat and he energized the team and the crowd. Watching the game, I kept thinking they couldn’t lose because he refused to let it happen and willed the team to victory. If you didn’t watch the game and only read the box score, please don’t make a poorly written blog about it. It’s equivalent to someone writing a movie review after watching the trailer.

Just because you have Nash doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy another point guard. He’s a once-in-a-generation player, but that doesn’t mean every point guard has to play just like him.

I look forward to the next time Nash puts up 40 points, so I can read about you lauding his shooting ability.

Hes a stud give credit where it is do hes doing what he has to do to keep that team competitive i thought we should have been more aggressive in getting him an still keeping our pick….hes been NBA ready he came from Oak Hill and has been playing on a team with high profile players on a team like ours his assist would be up..