Jimmer Fredette was one of the most dynamic guards in the country during his college days at Brigham Young University. The 6’2″ Fredette was most popularly known for his limitless range and his uncanny ability to connect on bombs from way outside the collegiate three-point arc. Fredette and his seemingly limitless range got plenty of hype heading into the 2011 NBA Draft in which he was a lottery pick, getting selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 10th overall pick.
Since draft day, the long-distance sniper has bounced around the NBA, playing five subpar seasons that included stints with the Sacramento Kings (twice), Chicago Bulls, New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks. He has a flat career stat line of 6.0 points per game to go with 1.2 assists and 1.0 rebounds.
While Fredette’s NBA career wasn’t even close to living up to the hype he garnered coming out of BYU, the combo guard has found a niche in the Chinese Basketball Association, winning MVP honors and throwing up a gaudy 37.5 points per game. With the playoffs currently underway and the Chinese season coming to an end this month, Fredette could be looking to make an NBA comeback just in the nick of time to add shooting off the bench during the home stretch of the 2016-17 campaign. Following from The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
Sources: China MVP, Jimmer Fredette, playing for Shanghai in playoffs, starting to engage NBA teams on March return. He's scored 37.5 PPG.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) March 1, 2017
Jimmer Fredette has had an abysmal NBA career thus far, but maybe his time in China did his game some favors. Plenty of teams around the league would love to add an additional shooter off their bench as you can never have too many marksmen, especially with the currently trending play style. Though the BYU product is putting up crazy numbers over in China, NBC Pro Basketball Talk’s Dan Feldman pointed out these type of points per game aren’t all that rare from borderline NBA talent:
Errick McCollum is averaging more points per game in the Chinese Basketball Association and taking fewer shots than Fredette. Also averaging 30 points per game in China: MarShon Brooks, Jared Cunningham, Jabari Brown, Jamaal Franklin, Lester Hudson, Darius Adams and Dominique Jones.
In other words, a bunch of borderline NBA players who most likely belong outside the top league.
That includes Fredette, whose selfish style doesn’t lend itself to the smaller role he’d likely have to fill in the NBA.
It’s reasonable to expect Fredette to get some looks once his season comes to a close in China but it would be difficult to see him make any significant upgrade to an NBA roster.
