Brandon Jennings fires back at Larry Sanders

Brandon Jennings responded to former Milwaukee Bucks teammate Larry Sanders after Sanders questioned the Detroit Pistons point guard’s commitment to passing the ball.

by Kevin Zimmerman

Oct 3, 2013, 6:06 PM UTC

Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE

Larry Sanders seemed to take exception when former teammate Brandon Jennings began talking about all the possibilities he'd have with a new team. Since being traded to the Detroit Pistons, Jennings has been open and fair in saying he's excited to play with big men like Josh Smith, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe.

That didn't rub Sanders, the Milwaukee Bucks' center, the right way. On Monday, reporters asked Sanders about Jennings' praise for his new teammates, and Sanders said that the point guard "has to pass it to them first," according to Fox Sports Wisconsin's Andrew Gruman.

Jennings responded on Thursday with comments somewhere in between going on the offensive and defending his decisions as a basketball player.

Jennings: "I wasn’t taking shots at Milwaukee but let’s be honest. I have 2 of the best young big men in the NBA. not gonna sugarcoat it."
— Vincent Goodwill (@vgoodwill) October 3, 2013

Jennings on Larry Sanders' comments: "I had to. Me and Monta had to take those shots. For us to get to the 8th spot, we had to." #Pistons
— Vincent Goodwill (@vgoodwill) October 3, 2013

Jennings (cont): "I’m not going to sugarcoat it or say it any other way. If he feels like I wasn’t passing him the ball (laughs)." #Pistons
— Vincent Ellis (@Vincent_Ellis56) October 3, 2013

Jennings (cont): "There’s times that that I had 20, 18, 19 assists in a game over there so I was passing." #Pistons
— Vincent Ellis (@Vincent_Ellis56) October 3, 2013

To end it, though, Jennings said: "But hey, they gave him (Sanders) $11 million."
— Vincent Goodwill (@vgoodwill) October 3, 2013

To be fair, Jennings had only 13 games of double-digit assists and highs of 19 and 17 during the 2012-13 season. In 291 career regular-season games, he has just 26 total games of double-digit assists. Along with Monta Ellis, Jennings became known as a chucker, but he is correct -- he and Ellis needed to take some bad shots. Maybe they took a few too many.

Jennings' field goal attempts per game dropped and his assists rose once Milwaukee fired coach Scott Skiles and replaced him with Jim Boylan, as Pistons blog Detroit Bad Boys mentions.

In 32 games under Skiles, Jennings attempted 16.5 field goals per game and handed out 5.8 assists. Playing for Boylan, Jennings shot 15 attempts with 7 assists per game for the final 48 of the season. It could be a fluke, but it's better to have evidence for hope than no evidence at all (ahem, Brandon Knight).

Last, it's important to look very closely at Brandon Jennings' shooting in 2012-13. Jennings missed 9.4 shots per game last season. That's incredibly costly, and the list of names of people who missed 8-10 shots per game but didn't score 20 points (and were not injured last season) is ugly.

Sure, both Sanders and Jennings have points. Going by the money, Sanders earned a longer contract extension this summer worth $11 million per year, and Jennings went to Detroit in a sign-and-trade on a three-year, $24 million contract.

Whatever the case may be, the Detroit-Milwaukee games this season should be fun.