The Steal of the Draft
Monday, June 29th, 2009This draft has been as negatively received as any draft in the last ten years. Pundits are saying only two or three of these guys are really going to make a huge impact on the league. Word is that most of these guys are going to end up as role players or guys buried on the deep end of the bench. At number ten, the Bucks were not supposed to be in position to get a significant contributor. But, the more time I take to think about it, the more my mind settles on two facts.
- Going to Europe is not a great move for high school players draft stock.
- Brandon Jennings is going to be a big deal
Rome looks like a beautiful place. The buildings are romantic, classical and have deeper and richer history than anything America has to offer. The food is often replicated but never duplicated in America. The best Italian food I’ve had in Milwaukee would be the pizza served by the good folks at Barbieres on Bluemound Road. Not exactly Acquapazza. Romulus and Remus are twin legends. The Colosseum, The Pantheon, Michaelangelo, I could go on and on. I’ve never been there, but it’d be on my top five international destinations. Now, if you’re a terrific high school basketball player whose absolute desire is to be drafted in the top five of the NBA draft, take all those great things about Rome/Italy and throw them away. Don’t even think about them. Because Rome destroyed Brandon Jennings draft stock.
If players don’t want to deal with the NCAA’s rules and regulations and exploitation, I understand that. Going to Europe is a terrific move if a players motivation is financial. Instead of worrying about the long arms of the NCAA law, Jennings got to focus on basketball everyday and sign a deal as the face of Under Armour basketball. Between the lucrative deal he signed to play his year in Europe, the Under Armour contract and his NBA rookie deal, Jennings now has money to set his family up for many many years to come. But the “Brandon Jennings Route” is equivalent to slacking in high school Spanish for four years and then moving to Mexico.
Sure, you have an idea of the language and probably think you’ll pick up the intricacies of it in a few weeks, but you won’t. People their have been speaking it their whole lives. Just like they wouldn’t pick up on me making jokes to my friends about their mothers, I wouldn’t get a lot of their language. It was easy for us to all assume that someone as talented as Jennings would be able to pick up European basketball with ease and take over games by the end of the season, but I don’t think any of us gives enough weight to the differences in the European game and the American game. Jennings noted that he’ll have to get out of the habit of hand-checking and grabbing since that is common practice in European defense. Apparently so is jerking around the minutes of talented player. Like a lot of NBA rookies, Jennings would sometimes play 30 minutes, and sometimes play six. And he was playing it out of position. People were lining up around the block to make the excuse for Jrue Holiday that he was playing the two and not the one at UCLA (admittedly, I would have been making the same excuse if the Bucks drafted him), well imagine doing that and learning a whole new brand of basketball with some grown men all over.
Yes, not only was Jennings now dealing with a new position, hand-checking, pulling and grabbing, but he was dealing with it from grown-ass men. There were no crappy little guys at the end of the bench. The guys at the ends of the bench were still bigger than your average college player and tons more physical to boot.
So forgive me if I give little credence to Jennings one season experiment in a brand new world. We forget so quickly the great player Jennings was in high school. He didn’t win the Naismith High School Player of the Year on accident. He averaged over 30 points a game at Oak Hill Academy. That’s the home of Ron Mercer, Rajon Rondo, Josh Smith, Jerry Stackhouse, Carmelo Anthony, Rod Strickland and Stephen Jackson among others. They don’t just hand out awards like that to anyone. Jennings is a special player. He calls himself “Young Money” and appropriately enough he’s young, a little slight and he makes me think of this. But I’m okay with that. The Bucks haven’t had swagger since Don Nelson left. Isn’t it time the Bucks turn their swag back on? And who better to lead them into the light of swagger than Young Money?
And if I ever see him on a segway (2:20 of video) riding down Water Street, then I know the Bucks have officially found their point guard of the future.
Buck Hits: 6-27
Saturday, June 27th, 2009- Charles F. Gardner gives us the scoop on why Hammond and Skiles went with Jennings
- Gardner also writes how Jennings worked his way up the Bucks board
- Jeff Goodman from Fox writes Jennings experiment paid off
- Jennings interview on draft night
- Dave DeGrace writes the NBA will seem like a cake walk after Europe
- Chad Ford thinks this could be a home run
- Michael Hunt sees a plan
- Jodie Meeks is excited to be learning from Michael Redd
- Gary Woelfel informs us that the Bucks have made a qualifying offer to Ramon Sessions
- An interesting piece from the Baltimore Sun about ex-Buck Sam Cassell’s transition to coaching. George Karl was a motivating factor!?
I’ll have my official thoughts on Brandon Jennings and Jodie Meeks up Sunday or Monday. It looks like it’s been a little more well received than I would have predicted initially. Enjoy the weekend Bucks fans!
Straight Outta Compt…er…Italy
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Welcome to Milwaukee! It's not that sunny here.
At number ten the Bucks went with the winner in the upside battle between Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holiday. Welcome to Milwaukee Brandon Jennings. Jennings is young, he’s a trail-blazer and none of us really know what to make of his European adventure, but at the very least he is someone to talk about. Will be put Milwaukee back on the NBA map for the right reasons? Or will people be done watching his experiment after a year or two? Only time will tell. But I’m excited to find out.
In round two the Bucks passed on local favorite Jerel McNeal and went with Kentucky scoring machine Jodie Meeks. Meeks is what I like to call a volume scorer. He had 54 points in a game last season for an underachieving Kentucky team and shot 40% on threes. The pick was generally well received in TrueHoop’s Live Blog so I’ll give it the thumbs up. I would have loved to see McNeal here though. Scott Skiles gets a 19-year-old point guard who showed up four picks after he was drafted to greet the crowd and one of the more notorious jackers in college basketball from last year. Should be a fun training camp this year!
I’ll have more thoughts later, but don’t expect much from me this weekend as a friend of mine is getting married this weekend. If I’m not back Sunday I’ll be back Monday with a roundup of the Bucks draft day. For now, I’ll just give it a thumbs up.
Here We Go
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Cheer Up Jonny, Milwaukee isn't that bad.
We’re heerree.
After months of talking and preparation the NBA Draft is set to go down at 6:30 PM Milwaukee time tonight. The Journal-Sentinel predicts it will be Jonny Flynn wearing the green and red hat tonight. Flynn currently leads the mock drafts right now, just edging out Jordan Hill. I expect this to be a little more fluid than usual today though.
We here at Bucksketball.com have embraced the idea of the athletic point guard from Syracuse. After all, he had great success in a sold out Bradley Center last year, maybe he can recapture that magic down the road. Flynn was an electric scorer at Syracuse in his two years there and did an adequate job of taking care of the ball. His quickness should make him a force pressuring point guards on the perimeter and he’s blessed with very impressive athleticism that helps neutralize his size deficiency.
Alas, we can’t be too sure that he’ll even be available. In Chad Ford’s most recent mock draft (I’m excited this week is almost over so Ford can sleep again) Flynn was taken earlier and the Bucks were “stuck” with Jrue Holiday. I don’t think he’ll be a terrible player, but personally I’d feel better about Flynn or Brandon Jennings.
Essentially it’s between Flynn, Holiday, Jennings, Jeff Teague and Jordan Hill. As Ford alluded to the other day the board likely looks something like
- Jordan Hill
- Jonny Flynn
- Jrue Holiday
- Brandon Jennings
- Jeff Teague
That seems to be the way things shook out after the massive point guard workout Monday. Hammond and Scott Skiles have been very adamant that they would not be more inclined to draft for need now that there is some money available to resign Charlie Villanueva. If Hill is there, I think he’s the pick.
As for round two? That’s a crap shoot, but I did read something very interesting about late round one picks and round two picks in ESPN’s D.R.A.F.T. Initiative study of the NBA draft.
Harbor no illusions. Find guys late who can fill one role for you in your system. Forget about somebody blossoming into a star.
Forget taking a big man because he’s full of potential or a younger guy because he is raw, it’s all about skills. The Bucks have been as savvy as anyone with second round picks in recent years (Mike Redd, Ramon Sessions, Dan Gadzuric and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute to name a few) and should get a decent guy at 41. Candidates?
Nando de Colo – French – A French point guard that has a very important skill: he can be left in Europe for a few years to develop. The Bucks had him in twice for workouts.
Wayne Ellington – Shooter – Ellington was a helluva shooter at UNC and likely will fill that same role on an NBA team in the future. Think Dell Curry when he was on the Bucks, not when he was on the Hornets.
Jerel McNeal – Defense – If the Bucks were able to use their new found flexibility to trade Charlie Bell they would have a ready made replacement in McNeal. As ready as anyone to defend point guards at the NBA level. Plus he wouldn’t hurt ticket sales.
Ahmad Nivins – Rebounding – Nivins, from St. Joseph’s, was fifth in the country in rebounds per game last year and at 6′9 242 would be a nice complement to the Bucks bench.
Kleon Penn – Shot-blocking – Penn, from little known McNeese State, was brought in for a workout earlier this month and could have done enough to win the hearts of the front office. The Bucks sorely lacked in the area of shot-blocking last year. You can find him on the workouts page.
Or it could be someone I don’t have listed. I wouldn’t mind seeing any of these gentlemen though.
As a special treat, I’ve re-assembled the gang from The Ideas of the Uniformed for their preferred choices.
The Hothead – Brandon Jennings
The Obnoxious One – Jonny Flynn
The Rational One – Jonny Flynn
The Homer – Jonny Flynn
The Burgeoning Fan – Jonny Flynn
you at 5:30!
TrueHoop Network Podcast: Part 2
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009From Hardwood Paroxysm:
In tonight’s episode, Billy brings home a turtle, and mom is none too thrilled. Sheila wrestles with whether to take Donald to Vickie’s, and Herman has a hilarious mishap at work.
Or, we talk to Zach Harper of Cowbell Kingdom, Mike C. from Knickerblogger.net, and Patrick from Howlin’ T-Wolf about the draft. Insight ensues. Enjoy.
Oh, and check us on iTunes, baby. Big time!
