Brandon Jennings: Being Underrated in Mock Drafts

Imagine your in a vacuum and you knew about a player who, as a senior, averaged a whopping 32 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and almost 4 steals a game while leading his team to a record of 41-1. Where would you think he would be mock drafted to go in the NBA in a few years time? Top five? Top three? Not the case.

Leading mock draft web sites NBADraft.net and Draftexpress.com have him being selected at a ridiculous 13th on their respective mocks. These web sites seem to be blinded by the poor statistics that Jennings put up in Europe which included 7 points, 1 assist, 1 rebound and 1 steal per game. But the facts are clear as day.

In Europe the style is completely different. A team-oriented game that is a far-cry from the individualistic game that is the NBA and college basketball in America.

How does a 19 year old kid who has been 'the man' of the team in high school, suddenly change his game to suit an alien game? He doesn't. He shot terrible from the field and struggled to make a significant impact on games.

If you want further proof of this see Josh Childress. He chased the euro's and played for Olympiacos Pireaus. Childress was always a very good role player in the NBA and could have taken his game to another level, but instead he proceeded to play in Europe and averaged 8 points and 4 rebounds in 24 minutes of action a game.

I am by no means saying that Childress is in the same boat as Jennings in terms of being the number one option on the team but the translation to the Euro style is something that he struggled with.

Jennings is a phenomenal athlete with tremendous court vision and scoring touch. He is one of those players that has that killer instinct about him that could take him to a superstar level in the league, if given the chance.

Realistically, Jennings is top three talent wise in the draft and top five, taking team needs into account. Proclaiming that Jennings is better than Rubio is arguable but we will soon find out later this year.