Flash versus substance may be oversimplifying this, but between Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holiday, it's pretty clear which player gets which tag. A recent SB Nation future ranking has Jrue as #53 while Jennings is way up at #37. As young point guards, they couldn't be any less similar. Who's the better player now? Who would you rather have in five years? Can either guy become a franchise point guard or will 2nd or 3rd option be their ceilings? Hit the jump for the vote.
Ever since Jennings' 55-point game before he sprouted his third pube, he's been anointed The Next Whatever, but the production hasn't matched the hype. Bucks fans are just happy he's not Tyronn Lue or Luke Ridnour, but expecting him to carry the entire team to any sort of playoff race at this point (a la Iverson) is not a possibility.
Jrue, meanwhile, has carved himself a little two-year career of being the underrated guy insiders get excited about. He's the indie band your friends only know that one half-decent song from, but he's actually got a few great albums in his back pocket and just seems one song away from truly breaking out. Only problem is, once he does break out, people will talk about how underrated he is, thus making him entirely too overrated. Psychologists call it the Andre Miller Syndrome. He still hasn't been as good defensively as we hoped, but the consistent jumper has been a surprise.
This would seem to be the that Jrue puts on the Big C (Captain, not Linney) and runs the team, but without a season it remains to be seen how his game progresses. Jennings gets more national love, but with poor shot selection, a ballhog reputation and sub-Iverson defense, can he ever be anything more than a Ricky Davis-esque high volume scorer on bad teams? Both guys could surely do with some better supporting options - we'll see if they get them.
Even though Jrue's our boy, would the unbiased version of us swap him for Jennings right now? I'm saying no, but there's a strong contingent of people - probably the majority - who would do it in a heartbeat. What say you?