Associated Press
The Milwaukee Bucks took Brandon Jennings with the No. 10 pick in the NBA Draft Thursday.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Brandon Jennings had heard all the negative perceptions about Milwaukee. The Bucks had heard the same things about the prep star-turned-European pro.
The Bucks nonetheless selected Jennings at No. 10 in the NBA draft on Thursday night to be their point guard of the future and added shooting guard Jodie Meeks with the 41st pick to continue remaking the roster with young, promising prospects.
"When I first got to Milwaukee, all I heard was all this bad stuff — Milwaukee is really boring, that it's terrible, but I really got to see the town," said Jennings, who played here in the McDonald's High School All-American Game in 2008. "Milwaukee's not a bad town. It's kind of laid back — a lot of fishing, a lot of boats, a lot of water."
Bucks general manager John Hammond said the 19-year-old Jennings impressed them with his maturity.
"He's in the gym a couple of times a day in Europe, it's nothing for them to practice twice a day," Hammond said. "This kid has a very mature side to him, he presents himself that way and I think there's a perception about who and what he is and as people got to meet him through this draft process I think they found out he's a very interesting guy, a very mature guy and has a lot of things going for him."
Jennings was the 2008 Naismith Player of the Year as a high school senior at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia and committed to play at Arizona, but elected to turn pro in Europe.
"I was just waiting for my SAT score, which I never have gotten back," he said. "I just had to make a decision to go over seas and I think it was the best decision I've made so far in my life."
He joined Lottomatica Virtus Roma in a decision that, given his high draft pick, could encourage other prep players to leave the U.S. for Europe.
Jennings, who is from Compton, Calif., transferred from Dominguez High School after his sophomore year and became one of the brightest stars at Oak Hill Academy, known as a powerhouse prep school for developing NBA talent.He set school records his senior year for single-season points (1,312), scoring average (35.5) and points in a game (63).
The 6-foot-1 guard then finished with a strong performance in the McDonald's game on the same court he'll start his pro career.
In Europe, Jennings averaged 5.5 points and 2.3 assists in 17 minutes in 27 Italian League games and 7.6 points and 1.6 assists in Euroleague play even though scouts said he seemed to lose some of his shooting touch.
"I wasn't playing my position, the point guard position, they had me all over the place, I was playing the two and the three," he said. "When I was out there, I wasn't comfortable and I was never in a rhythm, so when I was out there, I was taking shots as I could."
Still, he maintains that going abroad was the right decision.
"I don't regret it at all," Jennings said. "I still went top 10. I think you'll see more kids doing it. I hope they do it, it's a great experience overall. You just learn a lot."
Jennings worked out with the Bucks on Monday, but caught his left thumb in Jeff Teague's jersey, forcing him to pass more. That might have helped him with coach Scott Skiles, who holds the all-time record for assists in a game.
"He plays with a certain amount of flair," Skiles said. "He has good vision on the floor. He knows what he's doing out there, when he has the ball in his hands he's got good command of his team and what's going on out there."
Jennings said he'll appreciate working with Skiles and a group of Bucks led by veteran guard Michael Redd and 2005 No. 1 pick Andrew Bogut.
"They have some great pieces," Jennings said.
Hammond has changed some of those pieces in recent days after he traded Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas and got forward Amir Johnson from Detroit for Fabricio Oberto.
Milwaukee, which has had good luck in recent years in the second round, hopes Meeks becomes the latest late-round success after picking Redd in 2000, Dan Gadzuric in 2002, Ramon Sessions in 2007 and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute last year. All four remain with the Bucks.
Meeks came out after his junior year at Kentucky. The 6-foot-4 guard set a school single-game record with 54 points by hitting 10 3-pointers against Tennessee and averaged 23.7 points his final year with the Wildcats.
"He's one of the top-notch shooters in the draft," Hammond said. "The one thing he can do that you can't teach is shoot the ball like he can."