Jennings is owed an assist

I'll have the Game Stats Box Score from last night's Wolves-Bucks game in a half hour, but first I have a different issue that's bugging me, and it involves Brandon Jennings and the NBA's vague notion of an assist.

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Brandon Jennings had an off night shooting last night, but I was otherwise pretty pleased with his play.  Particularly, I was pleased with the way he was actively trying to "playmake" for his teammates.  He didn't finish the night with a whole lot of assists, but some of that was out of his control.  His teammates screwed him out of a few assists by missing open jumpers, and the NBA's official scorer screwed him out of one obvious assist as well.  Or at least what I thought was an obvious assist.  Let me describe the play.

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Actually, let me first describe a different play on which he WAS credited with an assist so you can see my relative confusion.  The first play was, I think, from the Bucks game against Philadelphia.

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On the play, Brandon Jennings brought the ball to the top of the key with his dribble, and then merely passed the ball off to an open Hakim Warrick who caught the pass on the side of the paint, 3/4s of the way up the free throw lane.  Warrick then proceeded to spin and face the basket after which he dribble drove past his defender and laid the ball in.  The NBA scorer considered that an assist for Jennings.  Huh?  How much input did he have in that field goal?  Not a lot.  He just spotted an open player and threw it to him.  Warrick had to beat his man one-on-one to make the play happen.

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Flash forward to last night.  Jennings drives past his defender from the top of the key to the middle of the paint.  When he gets near the cup he rises up and spots Bogut swooping in.  Jennings lays the ball off underhanded to Bogut who, WITHOUT DRIBBLING, slams the basketball through the basket.

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Now, how is the Warrick play "assist worthy" while the Bogut play is not?  Jennings did little to help Warrick score, other than pass to the open man, and yet he got an assist.  Whereas his penetration opened the lane for Bogut, and his dump off set him up perfectly, and Jennings gets no assist.  I don't get it.

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The only reason the non-assist bugs me is because the Bogut play is exactly the kind of play I want Jennings to make, and I want him to have an incentive to make it.  The Warrick play I could have made.

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Tagged as: Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee Bucks, NBA