Alright I Admit, I'm an Idiot

Alright, so I wrote about Brandon Jennings shortly after he got drafted in June. To say that the assessment was less than optimistic was an understatement. You can read the carnage here.

During the five months i've been blogging, i've occasionally given a counter-point (i.e. harshly criticized) some articles that I felt were so off, I couldn't go without saying something about it...not something I do often but it happens from time to time.

Well, in light of Brandon Jennings' 55-point outburst the other night, I decided it was time to give this treatment to a blog post, only this time the writer i'm calling out is myself. Amongst the "highlights"

I was already not digging the Bucks first round pick of Brandon Jennings when it was initally made on thursday,

Fair enough, the Bucks have made some draft day blunders. Trading Dirk for Tractor Traylor and drafting Joe Alexander are a couple examples of this.

However, the evidence of NBA-caliber talent is not (currently) stacked in his favor. First, he got picked 10th in what looks to be one of the weakest drafts in recent memory. Second, he didn't exactly impress in his two European stints maxing out at 7 points/game and 38 pct. shooting. It would be too early to write him off completely at this point, but he is nowhere near being good enough to start at this point.

One of the reasons he got pushed down to 10th was the Knicks passing on him even though he would have helped turn them around. Second, I made a horribly false analogy between Euro-Ball and the NBA. He was still 19 at the time and apparently he developed his skills against some competitive talent and became NBA ready I underestimated how much Jennings improved in his year in Europe.

but he is nowhere near being good enough to start at this point.

Yeah, i'm an idiot. Nowhere near good enough.....well he's good enough to break a club record held by Kareem and make the Bucks relevant. Obviously hes not gonna drop 55 on any given night, but hes not just good enough to start for the Bucks, he good enough to start anywhere.

I am not sold on Jennings as an NBA player.Best case, I see Jennings as either a) trade bait or b) a long-term option where he's a backup for a couple of years before being placed in the starting line-up

To say that I was horribly wrong on this assessment is an understatement. I definitely don't want him to be traded if hes going to turn the Bucks around (and possibly save basketball in Milwaukee) and hes definitely a bigger asset to this team than Luke Ridnour and Ramon Sessions.

Speaking of Sessions, I said:

Jennings acts like the Bucks are going to clear his path to the starting job by not re-signing Ramon Sessions (which would be a HUGE mistake

This was something I stuck by until the season started. This posting was already looking pretty bad even before Saturday night...and Sessions' start for the T-Wolves played a part in this. This (along with the rest of this posting) is filed under the...wow I actually said that.

Well point being is I couldn't have been more wrong about my initial assessment of Brandon Jennings. And in this case....I was so wrong about it that I had to call myself out on it.