Under head coach Stan Van Gundy, a player that was basically Mr. Bad Shot Selection has been making good decisions for once.
How nice has he been so far? Take a look at the numbers:
– Jennings is currently No. 6 in the league in PER ahead of stars like Stephen Curry, LeBron James or Dwight Howard. He has finished in the Top 100 only once in his NBA career.
– Jennings is shooting a career-high 46.3 percent up from 37.3 percent last year. He's never shot better than 42 percent in any of his previous five NBA seasons.
– Three-point shooting is almost 10 percent improved from last season: 33.7 in 2013-14 vs. 43.3 percent this year.
– His catch-and-shoot accuracy from three-point land (47.4 percent) is only 0.7 percent worse than Curry's. Last season, he made only 31.5 of his catch-and-shoot attempts from beyond the arc.
– He's now taking way more shots within three feet of the basket – 33 percent this year compared to 21.5 percent his first season in Detroit. Jennings is also finishing at the rim better than ever before: 58.9 percent of accuracy. Career average is 50.9.
– Even though playing time has been reduced, Jennings is driving to the basket 2.2 more times per contest than last year (8.0 vs. 5.8).
– He has drastically cut down on his pull-up shots (from 7.4 per game to 4.6) and has been more effective with the ones he takes (from 34.6 percent to 39.0).
– Not surprisingly, Jennings' true shooting percentage is through the roof compared to previous years.
http://e.infogr.am/brandon-jennings-true-shooting-percentage
Jennings is basically doing more with less. It's a small sample of games, of course, but progress is there for now for a player whom many had given up on.