Brandon Jennings Ups the Ante

Thanks to netw3rk for catching this one. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend you check out the Brandon Jennings/Jonny Flynn press conference following their workout with the Kings. Jennings oozes confidence, and openly denounces all of the Rubio hype. It's a stark contrast to Flynn, who can't help but laugh nervously while his peer makes headlines (Ben at BE's comparison is on the money). When and if Jennings makes his way to New York, expect a lot of heads to turn. That kind of unbridled, matter-of-fact arrogance comes around only once in a while, and it could either catapult Jennings to the top or make him the laughingstock of this draft.

I continue to be struck by the number and variety of top-notch point guards coming up this year. People call this a weak class, but it's deep as hell at the game's most important position. You've got dazzling, enigmatic guys from abroad like Rubio and Jennings, sturdy little quarterbacks like Flynn and Lawson, big, unproven youngsters like Evans and Holiday, a sweet-shooting, smooth-talking combo guard in Curry, and a few forget-me-not sleepers in Teague, Collison, and Maynor. All of their fates are intertwined, and how those ten are one day ranked is anybody's guess. Press conferences like this one only contribute to a budding interspecific competition that could turn the '09 guard class into CP3 vs. D-Wil times 10. It'd be a blessing for New York to be a part of that storyline.