Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports[/caption]Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings will be a restricted free agent after this season, but instead if doing the same song and dance so many other players have done, Jennings has a different plan than most. The 23-year-old says he'll play on a one-year qualifying offer, but if he does, he's good as gone with Milwaukee.
"If I take the qualifying offer and become an [unrestricted] free agent, there is no way I am coming back," Jennings told Yahoo! Sports. "There is no way."
In other words, he wants to get paid. However, Jennings also would like the Bucks to be more competitive and that he just wants to win. Jennings might have to come to the realization that the Bucks being championship-caliber is a pipe dream and he just might have to go elsewhere to win.
He does want to go to a bigger market, but being in a big market isn't exactly the key towards winning a title; ask any New York Knocks player of the past decade about it.
"I just want to win," Jennings said. "The way I am playing now, I just want to go to a winning team and play like that. I don't care about being a superstar or being the main guy. I did that [the] first four years. I just want to win and be somewhere where it's all about winning.
"I'm not saying the Bucks aren't about winning. But I think [a title-caliber situation] will help me, motivate my game and then you have to perform."
This is not exactly the most conventional way towards full-blown free agency, but Jennings has never done things in a conventional way when it comes to his basketball career.
He went to Italy to play professionally for one year instead of going to college, and instead of signing with an established shoe company he signed with Under Armour. He's kind of a trailblazer of sorts.
Jennings looks at what the Oklahoma City Thunder have accomplished in a small market and figures why it can't happen in Milwaukee.
Well, the Thunder have a special player in Kevin Durant and a very capable sidekick in Russell Westbrook. The Bucks have a few pieces like an emerging Larry Sanders along with Monta Ellis, but they don't have too much outside of those players.
I hate to say it Bucks fans, but say bye-bye to Brandon.
