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Former BYU Sensation Jimmer Fredette is Still Searching for NBA Stability

By James Fitzgerald

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Jimmer Fredette was a superhero for Brigham Young in 2010-11. Before the Cougars moved to the West Coast Conference, the Cougars were shredding teams in the Mountain West and Jimmer Fredette reigned supreme.

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“Jimmer-mania” was a national phenomenon, with the media and fans fully aboard the bandwagon while ratcheting up the amperage on the hype machine.

Who could really blame them? Jimmer Fredette was fearless with his shot. It did not matter if he was double-teamed or sometimes triple teamed from 28-feet out, he had an itchy trigger finger, and more often than not his shots hit the target.

His 28.9 points per contest in his senior year lead the country in scoring. Fredette was third in three-pointer (124) made and three pointers attempted (313). Overall he shot 45.2% from the field and 39.6% from three-point land in the 2010-11 NCAA season.

Those numbers earned him a consensus First-Team All-American nod and he was also named the 2011 NCAA Player of the Year.

He made Brigham Young basketball worth watching on TV for East Coast viewers. His 52-point outburst against New Mexico in the Mountain West Conference Tournament is still legendary.

He was that trendy marquee player that you wanted to watch bomb away, and coming off of watching Stephen Curry shoot Davidson into a deep NCAA Tournament run not to long before “Jimmer-mania”, everyone wanted to be taken on that same ride with Fredette.

Jimmer did not pull off the deep tourney run, but he did parlay his marksmanship and hype into being taken as a lottery pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.

The Milwaukee Bucks selected Jimmer Fredette with the 10th overall pick in the draft, and then shipped him off to the Sacramento Kings in a draft day trade.

Fredette pretty much fell under the same analysis as Stephen Curry before him, ” he can shoot, he’ll need to work on his handle, got to attend the Steve Nash Basketball Camp, blah, blah, blah”.

Jimmer Fredette was seen as someone that the Sacramento Kings fans could rally around because of the hype that was surrounding him coming out of college.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/mwest/2011-03-05-byu-wyoming_N.htm

Sacramento was searching for a hero, and a distraction from all the talk of the franchise being moved to the Pacific Northwest.

However, as the hype machine does so often, it put Jimmer Fredette up on a pedestal that he has had a hard time living up to in the NBA.

Call it being with an unstable Sacramento team that really did not take the time to develop him, call it no one taking him seriously with the Chicago Bulls or New Orleans Pelicans when he made those stops. The fact of the matter is Fredette has been seen as more of a roster filler, and less of a serviceable NBA guard.

Jimmer Fredette has not forgotten how to shoot all of a sudden. He is shooting 38.1% from three-point range in his NBA career.

The problem for Jimmer Fredette is that he is a victim of the hype machine, and even worse, he is a victim of the vicious NBA point guard grind.

Let’s be honest, if he was able to handle his business in any way, shape, or form to this point, he would be getting way more playing time and would not have been bounced around so much.

But then again, we can blame the instability and uncertainty of the playing situations he has been associated with early in his career.

Sacramento was in flux, the Chicago Bulls really did not need him, and neither did the New Orleans Pelicans for that matter.

That is why hearing the San Antonio Spurs have signed Jimmer Fredette could be the saving grace for “Jimmer-mania”.

BYU Cougars
BYU Cougars /

BYU Cougars

He may not turn into the superstar he was hyped up to be coming out of Provo, but his skill set in San Antonio’s offense is a perfect fit.

All they are going to ask him to do is knockdown shots and not screw it up.

He does not need to be an All-Star point guard, he does not need to be a team leader, he just needs to stretch defenses and make life easier for Tim Duncan and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Jimmer Fredette may never have the fever pitch hype that he had coming out of college ever again, but he can be a solid NBA contributor if given the right opportunity with the right team.

San Antonio might be the spot where Jimmer Fredette can make his contribution. Fredette may finally find the NBA stability he has never had by The River Walk .

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