Jennings’ travels bring him full circle
Brandon Jennings is no stranger to the itinerant life of a basketball player.
He played in Italy out of high school, suited up for five teams — including the Milwaukee Bucks — in eight NBA seasons and last summer elected to sign with Shanxi Zhongyu, a professional team in China.
For him, the trip to China had nothing to do with the NBA, yet it ultimately played a role in getting him back to the league and the city where his NBA career started.
“It was for me, personally,” Jennings said at the Bucks’ Sports Science Center Sunday afternoon fresh off his first practice with the team after signing a 10-day contract that morning. “Me overcoming my Achilles injury, me growing up and maturing and just my mental (well-being) and just becoming a better man.”
While in China, Jennings appeared in 13 games, averaging 27.9 points, 6.8 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 2.7 steals before being waived in December. When Jennings returned to the United States, he spent a few weeks “at home being a dad and basically just chilling” before signing into the G League as a free agent.
And when he did, the Bucks’ G League affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, happened to have the top spot in the waiver wire. They used it to claim Jennings on Feb. 13, marking a reunion between the franchise and the player the Bucks selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft and who spent his first four seasons in Milwaukee.
“I think it’s a fun story and it’s a good story and for us there may have been a little extra incentive because of knowing Brandon as a person — organizationally and what he’s done for us,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said. “You just have the familiarity, which is good. But it was really a result of our overall process that we go through. We study and research and analyze and evaluate basketball everywhere in the world — that’s one of the things we want to try to do.
“We don’t forget about the guys in China. We don’t forget about the guys in Europe or guys in South America or wherever they’re playing. We track those guys and Brandon played well in China.”
Shortly after claiming Jennings, Horst and Dave Dean, the Herd general manager and Bucks vice president of basketball operations, impressed on Jennings that this was an opportunity for him to play in the United States and demonstrate what he could still do.
“Learn our system, show us how you can be effective in our system, develop in our system, do things the right way and really impress us,” Horst said. “Worst case scenario, you impress the rest of the league; best case scenario, you impress us and there’s an opportunity with us.”
Jennings played seven games with the Herd, averaging 21.4 points on 34.6% shooting while dishing out 7.6 assists and grabbing 4.7 rebounds per game. With point guards Malcolm Brogdon and Matthew Dellavedova sidelined by injuries, the Bucks are in need of help.
“I have 10 days, so every day is a good opportunity for me,” Jennings said. “Just come in, play hard, run the second unit, get guys the ball, get Giannis the ball, make the right plays and just play hard every night.
“Just being back in Milwaukee just feels like home.”
Moving on: Jennings’ addition came at the expense of forward Mirza Teletovic, who the Bucks waived Saturday night.
Teletovic, who signed a three-year, $31 million deal with the Bucks in the summer of 2016, has been sidelined for the past four months, first by a left knee injury, then by the appearance of pulmonary emboli — blood clots in his lungs — which were discovered in December.
Since December, physicians from within the organization and outside it have been evaluating Teletovic’s condition, which can be life-threatening for any individual. For Teletovic, this is the second time he’s been sidelined by pulmonary emboli, with the first time coming in January 2015 when he was a member of the Brooklyn Nets.
Ultimately, the Bucks and Teletovic came to the decision that it was best to part ways, with Milwaukee utilizing his roster spot on Jennings’ 10-day contract.