I had considered putting together a post on this topic before the Bulls game, but figured that was just asking for trouble. Surely, having the gall to celebrate the opening weekend of Brandon Jennings' career was just begging for a 1/19 shooting night and complete embarrassment at the hands of Derrick Rose last night. What can I say? This is how being a Bucks fan for 20 years has trained me to think (and I haven't even written my thoughts on the Joe Alexander disaster yet).
Fortunately, I had nothing to worry about when it came to Jennings..
In any case, as you might guess this Jennings kid is attracting some buzz. As in, hoops diehards from outside the state of Wisconsin are apparently going out of their way to intentionally watch the Bucks, simply to figure out if the kid is for real. So far, so good.
Granted, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment if we expect 22.0 ppg and 50% shooting from deep to continue for 82 games. Jennings' year in Rome seemed to confirm he's anything but a consistent outside shooter, and even a year in Europe may not immunize him from hitting the rookie wall at some point. But no one has ever denied his talent, so we shouldn't have to worry about Jennings' first week being just the latest example of the Bucks perennially toying with our early season emotions. Hopefully.
In any case, we're not the only ones paying attention. Follow the jump for the beginning of what will hopefully be a season-long lovefest. I think Bucks fans deserve it, right?
Basketball Prospectus: Breaking down Jennings' game
Kevin Pelton's always one of my favorite reads and he offers a great scouting report on Jennings so far.
Sporting News: Jennings interview
Sean Deveney spoke to Jennings after the first two games. Among the highlights, Jennings discusses the extra time Scott Skiles has been putting in to help him.
He has been helping me out a whole lot, with watching film especially. We come in here early and watch film of all my shots, all the ones that were bad, all the ones that were good. He tells me certain things I can do when I am shooting, and I try to do those during the games. But it makes me want to take better shots, because I know he is going to go over it with me. It helps me out.
Yahoo! Rookie Rankings: Jennings #1
Like the title says.
ESPN: Rookie Rankings: Jennings #1
David Thorpe has had nice things to say about jennings since Vegas, but that doesn't mean he was expecting much from him early on. A week ago Jennings was ranked #13, behind such luminaries as DeMarre Carroll and Omri Casspi. The latter has played well, but come on!
It's hard to get mad at a player who so desperately wants to play well and does so with great effort. There are times when he's terrific at popping passes everywhere, and others where he over-dribbles and takes a horrible shot. He'll learn, and quickly, how to do more of the former and less of the latter.
But he's a terrific scoring threat, averaging 22.0 ppg on 50 percent shooting from 3 (and just under it overall). I've been most impressed with his ball-screen action -- no rookie attacks the screens better than him, and most are much worse.
Hollinger: From Rome to ROY?
Euro stats have never been so irrelevant, eh? Let's hope it stays that way.