Jimmer Fredette was indeed ahead of his time when he was selected as the 10th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, the hype was sky high. Basketball fans were expecting him to light up NBA score boards like he did in college with Brigham Young University.
The Milwaukee Bucks traded his draft rights to the Sacramento Kings, where Fredette's number "7" jersey made a lot of profit for the team in terms of merchandise sales. When it came game time however, the hype slowly died down as Fredette was in a right place at a wring time.
The 3-point shot, which was Fredette's bread and butter was downplayed by power post moves, flashy drives, and thunderous dunks, which defeated the purpose of his place on the rotation. The pure shooter suddenly found himself bouncing through teams in a course of five seasons.
In 2016, Fredette was out of the NBA.
What went wrong?
The whole reliance on the 3-point line started when Stephen Curry was officially given the permission to rapid-fire on offence for the Golden State Warriors. The flashy passer and decent scorer suddenly gave up all fundamentals in order to shoot 3-pointers at will.
There is an argument that Curry entered the league two years earlier than Fredette but it wasn't until 2014 that the whole 3-point frenzy hit the league. During that time, Fredette was rarely seeing playing time, a result of the entire league's past mistakes.
The Kings only held on Fredette for two and a half seasons before shipping him to Chicago whilst, Curry was able to get a feel of the NBA's 3-point distance for six seasons before changing the entire league.
Fredette took his talents overseas where he averages close to 40 points a game in his past two seasons with the Shanghai Sharks in the Chinese Basketball League. He was able to show NBA teams what should have happened had they let him get the feel of that NBA court for lengthy periods.
A second chance?
In an interview with Michael Shapiro of Sports Illustrated, Fredette talked about a number of topics including his stint in the NBA, his time in China, and even the NBA's current landscape.
"I think the league has really changed to my favor since I got into the NBA," he further said.
Do you think Fredette will thrive in today's NBA? What NBA team do you want to see him play for? Let us know your thoughts.
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