Brandon Jennings watch

[Fcuk Orlando]

His first terrible game stats wise. 4 out of 16 from the field. Didn't get to watch the game so I dont know if his shots selection was good or not but 4 out of 16 definitely doesn't look good on the stats sheet.

They still won though. I think he'll be a better player than blond Ricky, even though he won't be as effective.

[Fresh8]

His first terrible game stats wise. 4 out of 16 from the field. Didn't get to watch the game so I dont know if his shots selection was good or not but 4 out of 16 definitely doesn't look good on the stats sheet.

They still won though. I think he'll be a better player than blond Ricky, even though he won't be as effective.

I can envision Jennings to be a better individual player while Rubio will have more team success.

[J@3]

How do you figure that? Rubio will be playing for the God awful Timberwolves while Jennings is on a borderline play-off team.

[Fresh8]

How do you figure that? Rubio will be playing for the God awful Timberwolves while Jennings is on a borderline play-off team.

I was thinking over their careers. Not just in one season.

Also, who's to say Ricky wouldn't be able to help the Wolves be a borderline playoff team?

[Lamrock]

And how do you figure that the Bucks are better than the Wolves, who have three fringe all-stars?

[Fresh8]

And how do you figure that the Bucks are better than the Wolves, who have three fringe all-stars?

I think he means that Bucks more likely to make playoffs in East than Wolves making them out West.

[J@3]

And how do you figure that the Bucks are better than the Wolves, who have three fringe all-stars?

They play in the West. Three fringe (btw aside from Love and Jefferson I have no idea who the third could be) all-stars isn't going to make them a contender. If you're referring to Sessions, then LOL.

Besides I didn't say the Bucks were better (they are, but still) I said the Bucks will be more successful as Sit just pointed out.

I was thinking over their careers. Not just in one season.

Also, who's to say Ricky wouldn't be able to help the Wolves be a borderline playoff team?

He won't even come to the NBA until 2011 at the earliest... so lets assume he comes then. He'll be at most the 2nd string point guard behind Johnny Flynn. Could even be third string if Sessions figures his shit out. Kevin Love and Al Jefferson both have injury issues, Jefferson in particular because it's obviously hurting his play this season and he's been pretty awful. Even if we assume they both stay healthy you're looking at a team of...

C: Jefferson
PF: Love
SF: Who knows... Brewer probably won't stick around
SG: Who knows... probably someone they draft
PG: Flynn / Rubio / Sessions

That doesn't look like a borderline play-off team to me. They won't bring in any big free agents purely because no one wants to play in Minnesota. Much the same reason the Bucks struggle to attract anyone. Their only hope is going to be in the draft, but for that to work they will have to guarantee they don't improve until Rubio gets back because they'll need lottery picks. If they can get 3 more Kevin Love quality players in the next three drafts before Rubio arrives then I would say they will be a pretty good team, but it won't be because of Rubio. I look at it this way, of all the European point guards who have come over in the last few years, the only one to have any sort of genuine, long lasting impact was Tony Parker who came over as a 19 year old. Even then it still took a good season and a bit to get him contributing in any meaningful way.

If the Timberwolves are to become a play-off team it will be because of who they can pick up in the draft in the next few seasons. I'd bet my house it will have next to nothing to do with Rubio. Even if he was John Stockton part 2, that still leaves them with two other starting quality point guards to try and fit into the rotation and since those guys have been around longer I don't see them just giving the spot to Rubio as a rookie.

Also he's averaging 4/2/5 in 20mpg for Barcelona. He's not looking like a guy you can build your entire team around at any rate. Those numbers aren't really any better than Brandon Jennings' were in Italy and everyone gave him shit for how poorly he played there.

I do like Rubio. He's one of the more interesting guys drafted in recent times but aside from those insane games he had when he was 15 or whatever I haven't really seen anything to convince me he'll be more than a Jose Calderon in the NBA. His passing is spectacular but that will only take you so far, especially on a team where your genius GM went and drafted two PG's and signed another one in the same off-season. Looking ahead, this next draft is just packed with PF's/C's. If they take one of them they can wave goodbye to either Jefferson or Love down the line, they won't waste a top 5 pick on someone who's going to warm the bench behind those two in a draft this strong.

[Fresh8]

You bring up superb points.

When I mentioned Rubio making the Wolves a successful team, it was a bit tongue in cheek because I don't really see him being able to do that but I do acknowledge there is a slight chance... anything could happen. I was actually thinking that perhaps a team would be willing to surround Rubio with players... building a team around him (I don't think Rubio would be sticking with the Wolves for his whole career). You say you don't think you could build a team around him but I think you could (EDIT: Build a team around him like you would for a player like Steve Nash?). He has the handles and the court smarts, as well as a willingness to play defence. All he needs to add is a consistent shot and he'd be a solid player. Whether he can be a star remains to be seen but I do think he has great potential to help a team win.

All of this is purely hypothetical which is really a bitch cause Jennings is already here while Rubio is overseas for another 2 years.

[Martti.]

Jennings 17 points, 7-16 from the field. Better then 4-16.

It did result in a big win over the Knicks. Jodie Meeks was also great with 19.

[Fresh8]

It did result in a big win over the Knicks.

Thanks to a certain Aussie.

[Fresh8]

He played very good today. 32 points, 9 assists and led Bucks to win over Nuggets. Impressive. And Bogut had 23 and 10!

If anyone watched the game, are these two feeding off of eachother? It's really good news for Milwaukee. About time someone passed the ball to Bogut!

[Lamrock]

He's certainly exceeding my expectations. Not surprised to see him putting up big stats, but not this big of stats. I also expected him to shoot closer to 40% than 50% but so far he's been pretty efficient. He's inconsistent, but right now he's looking like the sure-fire rookie of the year.

[The X]

Is it bad that I don't want Redd to ever come back from injury? It's just going to ruin it for Jennings & Bogut.

I think Jennings will hit the rookie wall at some point, maybe 30 games in.

[Modifly]

His stats today was way above what I was expecting to see. 32 points and 9 assists, that's all-star numbers.

[J@3]

Someone posted comparison stats between him and Chris Paul after the same amount of games. They were almost identical except Jennings' scoring was notably higher, and that was before this game.

[benji]

Whoever did that comparison sucks at reading stats. Paul's rookie year vaporizes Jennings' from orbit going into tonights game.

[Andrew]

Is it bad that I don't want Redd to ever come back from injury? It's just going to ruin it for Jennings & Bogut.

It's not exactly fair to Redd, but I definitely know where you're coming from.

[Fresh8]

Is it bad that I don't want Redd to ever come back from injury? It's just going to ruin it for Jennings & Bogut.

It's not exactly fair to Redd, but I definitely know where you're coming from.

Well, maybe Redd will come back and just shoot (like he usually does) and not disrupt the flow? I'm hoping he does!

[shadowgrin]

What amazes me more is that Jennings' getting major minutes under Scott Skiles.
I expected Jennings to be immediately benched at the first TO of a bad play or bad shot selection but so far Skiles is letting him loose.

(Build a team around him like you would for a player like Steve Nash?)

Since when did Nash have a team built around him?
Definitely not during his Dallas days (It was all about Finley, then Nowitzki). Certainly not during his 'MVP' years in Phoenix.
Amare, Marion, Joe Johnson, Barbosa, the main guys that contributed greatly to the Suns' success were already there before Nash came in. (Screw Raja Bell)
Nash was just fortunate when he came to the Suns in 05 because the team was built around PGs (Kidd then Marbury) before and also having the right system that D'Antoni implemented.

[Andrew]

Hopefully for the Bucks he'll mesh with Jennings and Bogut on his return and they'll all remain productive. If he doesn't, I'd say it will be Bogut who will suffer the most as he needs people to get him the ball while as the point guard, Jennings will have the ball in his hands more often so he'll still get a healthy amount of shot attempts.

[J@3]

Whoever did that comparison sucks at reading stats. Paul's rookie year vaporizes Jennings' from orbit going into tonights game.

After six games...
Chris Paul: 14.5 PPG | 45 FG% | 4.3 RPG | 5.6 APG | 1.8 SPG | 2.6 TO
B.Jennings: 20.7 PPG | 45 FG% | 4.3 RPG | 5.2 APG | 1.3 SPG | 3.3 TO

Looks pretty similar. Only Jennings scores more.

[benji]

Maybe you should have put "after the same amount of games" in the post before instead of stealth editing it in later using your mod powers. Which you did because apparently I refuse to ever admit being wrong. (Based on the last...decade on here. And now I'm hanging myself.)

[Fresh8]

(Build a team around him like you would for a player like Steve Nash?)

Since when did Nash have a team built around him?
Definitely not during his Dallas days (It was all about Finley, then Nowitzki). Certainly not during his 'MVP' years in Phoenix.
Amare, Marion, Joe Johnson, Barbosa, the main guys that contributed greatly to the Suns' success were already there before Nash came in. (Screw Raja Bell)
Nash was just fortunate when he came to the Suns in 05 because the team was built around PGs (Kidd then Marbury) before and also having the right system that D'Antoni implemented.

I didn't say that Nash had a team built around him. I said build a team around Rubio 'like you would' for a player like Steve Nash. Putting the right players around Rubio, I think you could build a team around him.

[Martti.]

Go Jennings! He's also making Bogut play better, just like in my Bucks dynasty.

[J@3]

Bogut's scoring most of his points off his only offensive move. Jennings isn't Steve Nash'ing him.