The 35-year-old Stackhouse played the last five seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. In ten games last season, Stackhouse averaged 4.2 points on 26.7% shooting. That was the first time in his career that he didn’t average double figures. Stackhouse entered the league in the 1995-96 season after being picked in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Currently, the Bucks are the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference — two games behind the Chicago Bulls. They’ve lost four of their last five games, including a 17-point defeat at the hands of the Utah Jazz on Saturday.

Although rookie Brandon Jennings has been impressive at times this season for the Bucks, there’s no doubt he’ll need some scoring help if Milwaukee is to make the playoffs. That’s where Stackhouse and his career 18.4 points per game average comes into play.

Jerry Stackhouse signs with the Milwaukee Bucks (Image: Zuma Press)

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Jerry Stackhouse Joins the Bucks

After the Bucks beat the Portland Trail Blazers recently, Jennings (@YUNGBUCK3) said the following:

“Back to 500. Yess!!! “500″ means where doing good. Way to Play Hard Guys.”

For his Tweet, which came less than 45 minutes after the game, Jennings was fined $7,500 by the NBA. Following the fine, Jennings has threatened to delete his Twitter account.

“I’m bout to delete my twitter. Twitter cost me 7500. Looks like no Gucci and Louie for Xmas.”

Truthfully, it’s pretty lame for the NBA to come down on a young player who is celebrating the fact that his team won a game. There are a lot more things the league could be doing than playing the role of Twitter Mommy.

Brandon Jennings + Twitter = Fine

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Twitter Gets Brandon Jennings in Trouble

Behind Jennings’ masterful performance, the Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors by a final score of 129-125. The rookie point guard got help from Andrew Bogut’s 19 points and 11 rebounds in addition to the 14 points, six assists and four rebounds from Charlie Bell.

The scoring outburst by Jennings topped Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s franchise record for points by a rookie. In fact, only Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Barry and Earl Monroe had games with more points in their rookie campaign.

After high school, Jennings spent a year in Europe. Drafted tenth overall by the Bucks, he now has to be considered the Rookie of the Year favorite. He’s averaging 25.6 points and 5.1 assists through his first seven NBA games.

Brandon Jennings is early favorite Rookie of the Year (Image: Zuma Press)

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Rookie Brandon Jennings Scores 55 Points

The fact that Michael Jackson passed away yesterday was beyond surreal. Add in Farrah Faucet and you’ve got a double-whammy.  Then Shaq gets traded to Cleveland to team up with Lebron for what seems to be a destined championship run in 2010.

The 2009 NBA Draft class was not as strong as in previous years, but definitely offered some surprises.

What else happened on draft night?

Here’s a brief recap for your viewing pleasure:

• Richard Jefferson was traded to San Antonio.

• Blake Griffin was the number one pick in the ’09 draft.

• Tyler Hansbrough went to the Indiana Pacers.

• Golden State stole Stephen Curry from the New York Knicks.

• Brandon Jennings’ short stint in Europe paid off — he was able to gain more experience playing professionally overseas than he would have gotten playing in college. As a result, he was drafted 10th overall.

• Ricky Rubio sank in the draft and ended up going to Minnesota (along with Johnny Flynn for double the point guard fun).

Post from: EveryJoe

A Brief Recap Of The 2009 NBA Draft

“Yeah, I think I’m a better player than he is,” said Jennings. “I just shoot the ball better than he can. The only thing I’ve seen him do sometimes is when he has a home-run pass or something like that. I think the dude is just all hype. I can’t even front. I’m just going to be real with you guys.”

Although Rubio is ranked by almost everyone as the top point guard in the 2009 NBA Draft, Jennings doesn’t believe that would hold up under scrutiny.

Said Jennings: “Well, put it like this: If he was in a workout with me, Jonny Flynn, Jrue Holiday, Tywon Lawson, Stephen Curry, (Ricky Rubio) wouldn’t probably be at the top.”

The SI.com report also has a few more quotes, including one from Jennings say he can’t wait to play against Rubio in summer league. According to most mock draft, Jennings will likely go between the 4th pick in the draft and the 14th pick. It appears as if the Jennings and Rubio rivalry has already begun.

Do you think Ricky Rubio is overrated? (Image: Zuma Press)

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Brandon Jennings: Ricky Rubio Overrated

Short of creating a mock draft, I listed which players I personally think rank in the top ten as far as prospects go. I think they are the cream of the draft crop. Whether or not NBA scouts agree with me is another question.

Lyndsey’s Top Ten 2009 NBA Draft Prospects

Blake Griffin will most likely be the number one pick in this year's NBA draft.

1. Blake Griffin (F/C) — If he doesn’t go number one I’ll be dumbfounded. He’s got the size, skill, quickness and innate athletic talent to make an immediate impact.

2. Hasheem Thabeet (C) — Can you say Dikembe Mutombo? The only different is that I think Thabeet is much more than a rebounding/shot-blocking machine.

3. Ricky Rubio (PG) — This kid, and I stress kid, is talented. I’m excited to see what he can do in the NBA.

4. Ty Lawson (PG) — He was the difference maker in UNC’s Championship season. I don’t think they would have won the NCAA Tournament without him. He’s smart, quick and has the upper body strength to compete in the NBA.

5. Stephen Curry (G) — Curry is probably a mid-to-late first round pick.
But I believe he has the talent to develop into a an amazing player. He’s got to put on a few pounds first though.

6. James Harden (SG) — Great shooter, def. an asset to any team.

7. Tyler Hansbrough (F/C) — I know a lot of people think Tyler is going to be like Christian Laettner … great college career,  not so great in the NBA.  I think Tyler has the drive to work hard and improve at the NBA level. Besides, Laettner may not have been an all-star caliber player but he lasted 13 seasons, which isn’t too shabby.

8. Jeff Teague (G) — Great offensive presence. He’s smart and he’s a scorer. He needs to work on his defense a bit.

9. Jordan Hill  (F/C)— Considered one of the most improved college players since last year. He averaged a double/double for most of the season.

10. Brandon Jennings (PG) — Went to Italy last season because he couldn’t jump right to the NBA due to the age regulation. While he hasn’t made a huge splash overseas, he has the potential to be a big time player here at home with his athleticism and size.

Photo provided by Newscom

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Lyndsey’s Top Ten 2009 NBA Draft Prospects

But the news concerned a different Wildcat squad than the one previously mentioned.

It didn’t have to end up like this.

Prediction #2

2) Arizona will struggle to remain one of the top teams in the Pac 10 and shockingly, will miss the Big Dance. I see this team suffering through another season in which productive bodies off the bench are nonexistent. Last year’s Zona squad made Kentucky look like a deep group.

The top 15 recruiting class doesn’t look as enticing on paper anymore, but will somehow need to play way over their heads to give the team the extra depth.

Italy bound Brandon Jennings would have catapulted this team to a top 10 status. He would have made Budinger, Wise and Hill much better players and instilled the needed guard-like leadership foundation that was left void by Bayless. Giving up more than 27% of your scoring (Bayless) and in return swallowing a stat line of nothingness, which you thought would be abundant and flashy, is an obstacle too massive to overcome.

Losing out on Emmanuel Negedu hurts too.

And consequently, Chase Budinger will not be a top 20 pick.

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Missing in action

The Associated Press is reporting that Georgia Tech’s Ra’Sean Dickey will leave the Yellow Jackets to play professional basketball with Budivelnik Kiev, a Super League team in the Ukraine.

Dickey, a 6-foot-10 inch junior center who averaged 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds during his three years at Georgia Tech reshirted last season due to a right knee injury.

He will join former Georgia Tech teammate Anthony Morrow, who played for the Yellow Jackets from 2004-08. Anthony signed with the Ukrainian team earlier this year after his senior season.

So instead of coming back for a healthy senior season and help lead his team to a good run in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the NCAA tournament (and maybe getting a degree when he has time), and maybe cash it all in the NBA Draft, Dickey and his family decided it was time to make some quick money and head to Europe.

What’s the point of saying “I told you so.” This was a slam dunk. Brandon Jennings is now a trend setter. Watch out for even more high school and college players to follow the road to Europe.

Post from: EveryJoe

Brandon Jennings – Trendsetter

Now that Brandon Jennings is setting a precedent and blowing off both college and the NBA for a year or more to play in Europe, expect more high school players to follow suit. In this great country of ours, nothing is going to stop someone from making a living, and you can’t force someone to go to college if they don’t want to (unless it’s a requirement to get to the NBA).

The NBA has been allowing foreign players with no college experience to come over here for years. It’s about time Europe and other nations started allowing our players to go over there.

If the powers that be allowed high school players to go to Europe a few years ago, O.J. Mayo would have probably gone and USC wouldn’t be in the mess that it’s in today.

Europe used to be for college players who couldn’t get drafted, or for struggling or end of the line NBA players. Now it may become a hotbed for high school players too dumb to pass their SAT’s or who want to get an early start on their NBA careers.

Will this force the hand of NBA Commissioner David Stern and make him rethink this silly one year of college basketball requirement?

What will college coaches do now knowing that all the time they invest in bringing in some McDonald’s All-American who has the brains of a donut when it comes to grade school work, may blow them off go to Europe if they can’t meet the minimum requirements on the SAT? Will they start to go after real “Student Athletes”?

This may be a great thing for Jennings and players like him, but it may turn out to be a black eye on college basketball, the NBA, and a failed system that really needs to be fixed.

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How Many More Will Follow Jennings to Europe?

The Washington Post recaps Brandon’s decision and how it could affect the decisions of the talented, young U. S. players who have zero desire to play the required one year of college ball (or one year removed from high school) needed to be eligible for the NBA draft.

GoAZcatsblog says, no big deal!

So much for the tandem of Jennings and Budinger in 08.

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Brandon Jennings: Coming to an Italy arena near you