It will be interesting to see how (and where)
Brandon develops as a player from here-on-out.
He’s still really young, and I hope he’s coached
well. I wish him all the best.

But he doesn’t do something related to ball handling that is important to being a good passing point guard – something that Chris Paul and Steve Nash do a phenomenal job of and you can watch Rajon Rondo, Jeremy Lin, Goran Dragic, and Ty Lawson do well also – the thing which I am referring to is calmly dribbling into traffic while maintaining good court vision and being in position to quickly pass, shoot, or retreat based on the reaction of the defense. Chris Paul and Steve Nash will meander in and out of defended areas with regularity all the while maintaining their dribble and keeping an eye out for opportunities to shoot or pass. It isn’t an easy skill to acquire and thus it is much more common to see in the nba than any other level. By doing this a pg effectively forces the issue for the defense and as a result creates opportunities which can be converted on if he and his teammates can react quickly enough and are on the same page.

On the occassion that Brandon does probe into defended areas it is usually for a drive. He usually moves very quickly (I would say nervously) with what seems to be pre-determined intent/tunnel vision. Not all options are on the table for him in these instances. Recently I think Monta Ellis showed good capability to probe the defense and I think it was a big reason why he was so successful despite the fact that he was still shooting poorly.

Another aspect of Brandon Jennings that I wonder about:
He doesn’t seem to be all that great of a ballhandler,
especially for a point guard. For one thing, he seems
to dribble the ball too high; another thing is that he
seems to fumble the ball from time-to-time. These things,
if my perception is right, would be magnified during
crunch time when the defenses get tighter. I wonder
if more knowledgeable fans see the same thing, because
I’m not sure about this.

We thought the recent trade deadline was intriguing. It’s going to be a crazier summer with all the expiring contracts on this team.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9002028/the-best-bargains-nba

first Bucks mention:

Luc Mbah a Moute (Bucks): 3 years, $13.8 million
Love watching this dude play defense, love listening to opposing announcers mangle his name. You gotta hand it to Bucks GM John Hammond:3 He made three bad signing mistakes (the Drew Gooden/John Salmons/Corey Maggette contracts) and somehow extricated himself from two of them. He bailed on Andrew Bogut’s contract at the perfect time. (Sorry, Warriors fans, it’s true.) He nailed three first-rounders in four years (Brandon Jennings at 10, Larry Sanders at 15 and John Henson at 14) and smartly traded down in a crappy 2011 draft from 10 (Jimmer Fredette) to 19 (Tobias Harris) while dumping Salmons in the process. Looking at their roster right now, they don’t have a single overpaid player except for Monta Ellis4 (probably bolting this summer) and Gooden (an amnesty candidate). Watch what happens this summer when Hammond flips Jennings (eligible for a big extension) for assets to some desperate team that wants to stupidly overpay him — it’s the same thing New Orleans should have done with Eric Gordon (and didn’t). More on this later.

Second Bucks mention (BJ3 discussed starting in 3rd paragraph):

5. Al Horford (Hawks): 4 years, $48 million
He signed a five-year, $60 million extension in November of 2010, so we’re only in Year 2 of what almost immediately became a doozy of a bargain for the Hawks. He’s the league’s 41st highest-paid player right now, earning significantly less than peers like Pau Gasol, Zach Randolph and Chris Bosh. Carlos Boozer and Al Jefferson make 25 percent more per year than Horford does. Heck, Kris Humphries makes as much per year as Horford does.

Quick tangent: I understand why players gravitate toward grabbing guaranteed money over just rolling things over and betting on themselves in the open market. I do. Just understand that it’s the best possible way for a team to pay discount prices for an All-Star … as long as you’re betting on the right guy (Rondo, Horford, Noah, Ibaka, Holiday or Curry) and not the wrong guy (like $50 million for Andrea Bargnani).

Flipping that around: You might remember Roy Hibbert, Nic Batum and Eric Gordon passing up extensions and betting on themselves as restricted free agents. What happened last summer? Hibbert and Gordon landed max deals; Batum landed $46.5 million over four years. Expect the same good fortune for Brandon Jennings this summer — back in October, he only wanted the same numbers that Holiday and Curry were getting, Milwaukee balked, and now he’s headed into the open market as a possible max guy during a piss-poor summer for marquee free agents. Should Jennings make more than Ibaka or Lawson?

(Hold on, I have to find my cap locks key. Give me one second here.)

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO, A THOUSAND TIMES NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can’t give the max or even anything close to the max to a shoot-first point guard who makes 40 percent of his shots, especially if it’s someone who undeniably hurts his teams in crunch time. Of the 25 players who took the most “clutch” shots so far this season (close games, three minutes or less), Jennings has the second-worst field goal percentage (27.3 percent) and is tied for the fourth-most turnovers (nine). During the 2011-12 season, he took the fifth-most clutch shots (63) and made the lowest percentage of anyone in the top 25 (20.6 percent). During the 2010-11 season, he had the lowest “clutch” field goal percentage (25 percent) of anyone in the top 20 not named “DeMarcus Cousins” (a rookie that year). Really, he should be making Mike Conley/Goran Dragic/Jeremy Lin money (something like $8 million a year), but as they say in auctions, it only takes two dummies to drive up someone’s price. No offense to Brandon Jennings, but I can’t wait to make fun of the team that gives him $58 million over four years. And it WILL happen. (End tangent.)

Was hoping for a Boston loss last night, but noooooo
Warriors couldn’t pull out a win, even after we gave them Bogut?