Milwaukee Bucks: Grading every draft of the past decade
By Ben Sewell
2009
10 – Brandon Jennings
41 – Jodie Meeks
Grade: A
For the failure of the 2008 draft, Hammond more than made up for it with this draft. In a stacked top-10, the Bucks selected Brandon Jennings who would go on to become arguably one of Milwaukee’s greatest ever point guards.
Jennings averaged 17 points, 5.7 assists and 1.5 steals per contest and was the leader of Milwaukee’s offense in his time with the side.
Jennings earned NBA All-Rookie First Team honours in his rookie season, highlighted by his 55-point explosion against the Golden State Warriors. This effort was the second highest by any rookie, second highest by any player under 21 years of age, and the second most points in a single game in Bucks history.
Unbelievably this came in Jennings’ seventh match as a Buck and set sky high expectations for the point guard. Jennings was a borderline All-Star throughout his time in Milwaukee and most Bucks fans will admit he was good for the side and justified his selection inside the top 10.
Arguably Jennings’ most important contribution to the Bucks however, was nothing he did, but his trade away from the side. In 2013, Jennings was sent to Detroit in a sign and trade deal that netted the Bucks Brandon Knight, Viacheslav Kravtsov and little known rookie shooting guard Khris Middleton. Knight was eventually traded for Michael Carter-Williams, who as we now know was then traded for Tony Snell. Middleton has since turned out, as the undoubted number two man to Giannis in the current side.
Essentially Jennings was one of the Bucks finest point guards while in Milwaukee, highlighted by his recent appearance in the NBA 2K18 All-Time Milwaukee Bucks side. He was then traded for what is currently Khris Middleton and Tony Snell, two of Milwaukee’s current starting five. That’s a home run of a draft pick if you ask anyone and props to Hammond.
Meeks was a solid, but unspectacular pick at 41, only lasting half a season in Milwaukee, averaging 4.1 points and 1.8 rebounds. Meeks’ shortcomings cannot undo the good work Hammond did in drafting Jennings however and for the 2009 NBA draft, Hammond receives an A.