There's no question that Jennings is an immensely talented player coming into the draft. by talent alone, he was a top 3 pick. Even higher than Tyreke. But there were so many questions about his maturity, intelligence and character. Milwaukee is the perfect situation for him; they are a horrible team and they need scoring. they've given the key to him to do whatever he wants on the floor. No strings, no leash. I remember Kurt Rambus in Minnesota saying that he thinks Flynn is just as good but he is restricting Flynn for the better of the team.
Race for ROY - revised title
- Thread starter hrdboild
- Start date
PPpppfffffffpppfpfpff.....He only had 5 assists and 4 TOs. Awful.
Plus, Reke will lock him up.
....Ok seriously, that was rediculous. Good for the Bucks. I think their FO can be forgiven for the Alexander bust. If Jennings did in fact lock up ROY we'll just blame the Warriors (or maybe Reke will drop 60 on them in our next matchup?)
Plus, Reke will lock him up.
....Ok seriously, that was rediculous. Good for the Bucks. I think their FO can be forgiven for the Alexander bust. If Jennings did in fact lock up ROY we'll just blame the Warriors (or maybe Reke will drop 60 on them in our next matchup?)
Amazing game by Jennings. Even with his stellar play so far, I never would have imagined him dropping 55 (albeit against the Warriors).
Still, though, I can't warm to him. He still comes across as immature and arrogant (although that arrogance is probably what makes him what he is - no doubt he believes he can be the best).
It will be interesting to see how Reke matches up against him in December.
Still, though, I can't warm to him. He still comes across as immature and arrogant (although that arrogance is probably what makes him what he is - no doubt he believes he can be the best).
It will be interesting to see how Reke matches up against him in December.
I'm hoping this will happen. It will be a good rivalry this year in the minds of the fans. As I feared the backlash on Tyreke is already occuring due to Jennings 55 point performance... Tyreke has dropped from #1 to #4 on some rankings, despite 4 20 pt games in a row in which we won.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/play....com/nba/players/rookies/rankings?season=2010
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/play....com/nba/players/rookies/rankings?season=2010
I def. agree that the quality of the league has improved with more prepared kids coming to play. However, the NBA's biggest competition in many ways is the NCAA. That's why increasing the requirement for two years hurts the NBA. Why give the NCAA great players that should be in the NBA for an additional season? The one year thing is great because it adds media exposure to the players until the NBA draft. The NBA should just let it stand as is...increasing it to two years just denies it talent and the boost that comes from a freshman's one and done season.
On the contrary, the return of the top kids to the NCAA has done wonders for the NBA -- the free publicty, built in excitement and fanbase of a guy liek Kevin Durant coming in i sjust huge for the legaue. When the kids were coming in at 18, having to find minutes in the league, it was a slow build ot fame. Now the NBA basically gets to import famous players with all kinds of accolades directly onto its lesser teams. LeBron aside, no way a high school player can generate that kind of hype. NCAA is like an incredibly high profile d-league for the NBA. Guys develop their game and their fame, and you don't have to pay for it.
2 years in the NCAA would reduce the bust rate of top picks which is good for the NBA. Its also good for the NCAA. I don't see them as competition but the success of one or the other is mutually beneficial. Its not as cut and dry as college football having Saturdays and pro football having Sundays, but the big games of the week generally don't run up against each other on the TV schedules.
I still think tyreke will have him beat. Kings vs Bucks game will be nice.
I have both Jennings and Reke on my fantasy team
Woot..
Btw, does KF have a fantasy league?
I have both Jennings and Reke on my fantasy team
Woot..Btw, does KF have a fantasy league?
Well it's not just that. Players turn into superstars in college which in turns gets fans more excited when those players enter the draft. For example, me - I didn't really know all that much about Durant before college. When he lit up with Texas, it got me going, I started watching his games, and I followed him into the NBA. I think that's Brick's point. Athletes get to develop, enjoy the college life. NBA gets FREE hype for these players as they put up huge games, and thanks to Dick Vitale and March Madness, these players are basically auditioning for the draft. All NBA has to do is let the players enter and watch the jersey sales fly.
55 is very impressive, but against the warriors is like scoring 30 against the spurs. Not a lock for ROY, because Evans is on his coat tails, and Blake Griffin hasn't logged one minute of action. Griffin could easily average 14 and 10 and put Jennings out. Evans only has to win. If Evans gets us to the playoffs, he will by default be the ROY. Even though jennings is playing well, and the Bucks are 5-2, Cleveland, Indy, Chicago, and Detroit are better teams, and i suspect that once teams start to shut down BJ3, the bucks will start to struggle again. This is the bucks, they needed a 55 point outburst from their rookie PG and still almost gave the game away(Warriors were one 3-pt conversion away). I predict the Bucks go 32-50.
It's not shame to almost lose a shootout to the Warriors... they are the new posters kids for running and chucking. Cleveland and Chicago are better, Detroit has been OK, Gordon and Charlie have been playing well, and Indy is Indy... nobody knows what the hell is going on. Murphy and Dunleavy have been out, they're not healthy. If Redd can get healthy and Bogut and Jennings can build a little chemistry, who knows.
If all you saw in that box score is that Jennings got on a ridiculous hot streak and scored 55 points in one game, on one night, then you completely missed the point. If you think he looks like AI than you completely missed the point. This is exactly what I was arguing about in all the draft threads. Kid's a PG. He's a pure PG. AI was a scorer, a damn good one, but only ever a scorer. If you watch the games, there's no point at which Jennings decides "I'm going to be a scorer now" and starts forcing up shots or driving into the defense. He's playing smart basketball and looking for his teammates. When the defense cuts under the screen and leaves him open, he takes the shot. When they try to trap him he makes the pass. He hit Bogut for a perfect alley-oop in the third quarter off a pick when the second defender rotated to Jennings and left Bogut open. Every one of those threes he took the defense left him wide open on a switch. He's a lot closer to Steve Nash than AI. There's a big difference between a PG who has to score to make an impact and a PG who can score if he needs to. People forget this, but Nash wouldn't be nearly as effective if he wasn't a threat to hit the open jumpshot. Jennings has already had two nine assist games. All he ever talks about is how he wants to lead the league in assists. Not scoring. He's controlling the tempo of the game and he's playing terrific defense in the fourth quarter which is helping his team win games. That's why he's the frontrunner for ROY right now. Not because of one hot shooting night.
I saw Jennings play in high school, in the Euroleague, and now in the NBA. It's clear the Euroleague made a difference in the maturity of his game that he couldn't have gotten in college. Even though his statistics were way down over there, you could see the light was going on. His first few games he was out of control, beating his own teammates up the floor and turning the ball over. Then he got benched and he started playing smarter in limited minutes. He only took three pointers when he was wide open. He wasn't ever looking for his shot unless he could beat the defender all the way to the basket. He was working hard on defense trying to knock the ball loose and start the fast break. He wasn't an out of control high school kid anymore.
It's fine if you don't want to believe that the Euroleague is that different from college. If you want to believe that kind of talent will shine in the end regardless. But these are the same arguments I was hearing before the draft why Jennings wasn't worth a lotto pick. That he couldn't dominate against "weaker" competition and so it should be ignored that he played in high school all-star games with Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Tyreke Evans, OJ Mayo, Donte Greene, Jarryd Bayless, and other NBA players and was a whole level of talent better than all of them. The Euroleague is a slower game. You can get away with a lot more pushing and shoving on defense. If you expect to just run everyone out of the gym you're going to get squashed. But then I'm skeptical of the whole idea of a "student athlete" in general -- especially as it relates to professional sports. Every university is in the business of making money first. Education comes second. If you don't believe that, than you should work at a University for 5 years like I have. They want the money that comes from having a winning sports program and there's all sorts of shady ways to get around those education related requirements. Maybe it's different at small schools.
And I never said anything about locking up ROY by the way. My first post was moved out of the general NBA topic.
I saw Jennings play in high school, in the Euroleague, and now in the NBA. It's clear the Euroleague made a difference in the maturity of his game that he couldn't have gotten in college. Even though his statistics were way down over there, you could see the light was going on. His first few games he was out of control, beating his own teammates up the floor and turning the ball over. Then he got benched and he started playing smarter in limited minutes. He only took three pointers when he was wide open. He wasn't ever looking for his shot unless he could beat the defender all the way to the basket. He was working hard on defense trying to knock the ball loose and start the fast break. He wasn't an out of control high school kid anymore.
It's fine if you don't want to believe that the Euroleague is that different from college. If you want to believe that kind of talent will shine in the end regardless. But these are the same arguments I was hearing before the draft why Jennings wasn't worth a lotto pick. That he couldn't dominate against "weaker" competition and so it should be ignored that he played in high school all-star games with Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, Tyreke Evans, OJ Mayo, Donte Greene, Jarryd Bayless, and other NBA players and was a whole level of talent better than all of them. The Euroleague is a slower game. You can get away with a lot more pushing and shoving on defense. If you expect to just run everyone out of the gym you're going to get squashed. But then I'm skeptical of the whole idea of a "student athlete" in general -- especially as it relates to professional sports. Every university is in the business of making money first. Education comes second. If you don't believe that, than you should work at a University for 5 years like I have. They want the money that comes from having a winning sports program and there's all sorts of shady ways to get around those education related requirements. Maybe it's different at small schools.
And I never said anything about locking up ROY by the way. My first post was moved out of the general NBA topic.
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Great post hrdboild. Jennings is clearly more then a volume scorer. I though the Bucks were going to struggle this year but he has come in and had a huge impact on that team. Jennings is making Bogut look like a all star center. He simple makes those around him better, which is what you want out of any pg.
Hmm...that may be taking it a bit far.
I would agree with the general point that he is a PG rather than a volume shoter, but Bogut's numebrs are pretty much the same as they have been the alst couple of years, and everyone else on that team has struggled. Of course everyone else sucks, so it could just be that. But Redd struggled before going down with the injury (13pts 32% shooting) , Warrick is the #3 scorer at 10.4pts on .422 shooting. Ignoring Ridnour, who is of course Jennings' backup and doesn't play with him, the rest of the rotation guys have all struggled, Ilyasova is shooting .396, Bell .378, Meeks .351, Delfino .324, Mbah a Moute .325. To the degree they are winning over there, its really been with defense.
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