Jimmer Fredette to sign with Nuggets' summer league squad


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DENVER — Jimmer Fredette’s journey since graduating from BYU in 2011 has taken him through multiple stops and levels of the NBA.

He’ll add one more this summer.

The 27-year-old former Associated Press national player of the year will play with the Denver Nuggets in the Las Vegas Summer League on July 8, according to multiple reports. Other familiar names joining Fredette on the summer league roster include Denver’s two first-round picks, Jamal Murray and Juan Hernangomez, as well as former Wyoming star Josh Adams, according to the Denver Post.

A source confirmed to KSL that the former BYU all-time scoring leader will be on the roster for the Denver summer league team, but the NBA squad has yet to officially announce the lineup.

Fredette’s wife Whitney, a former BYU cheerleader, is a Denver local and the two have been living in the Mile High City while he works out with several Nuggets players in the offseason. He also spent some time recently in Utah, raising nearly $25,000 for an Orem playground for special-needs children by making 84-of-100 3-pointers at Orem High School last month.

The ex-BYU star set a program scoring record with 2,599 career points (currently the second-most in BYU history) was drafted with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft to the Sacramento Kings. But his career fizzled in recent years, when he made brief layovers in Chicago and New Orleans before going No. 2 overall in last year’s D-League draft to his hometown Westchester Knicks.

Fredette received a 10-day contract with the New York Knicks, but he played in only two games and finished his Big Apple career with just seven points in five minutes played and three DNPs to his status.

Fredette averaged 6.0 points, 1.4 assists, 1.0 rebounds and 0.4 steals per game in five NBA seasons spread out among four teams. His best season came as a rookie in 2011-12, when he averaged 7.6 points, 1.8 assists and 1.2 rebounds per game off the bench for the Kings, but his playing time diminished every year since then.

He seemed to revitalize his career a little bit in the D-League, averaging 21.1 points on 45.8 percent shooting, including 41 percent from 3-point range. He also had five assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 35 minutes per game with Westchester, leading to All-Star honors and a D-League All-Star Game MVP nod wherein he scored 35 points in the showcase event of the 19-team league.

New York Knicks guard Jimmer Fredette (32) guards Toronto Raptors' Deion Wright during the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Toronto Raptors Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Raptors won 122-95. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
New York Knicks guard Jimmer Fredette (32) guards Toronto Raptors' Deion Wright during the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Toronto Raptors Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Raptors won 122-95. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

But D-League has never seemed like a viable option long-term for Fredette, and he is likely to take European offers if his last-ditch summer outing with the Nuggets doesn’t result in an NBA training camp contract. He’s already received multiple offers from European clubs, but chose to spend one season in the D-League to try to get back on the NBA’s radar.

“I probably won’t be playing in the D-League next year,” Fredette told SB Nation after the Knicks’ loss to the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the D-League playoffs. “I feel like the one year that I was able to come out and be able to get into a rhythm and prove to myself what I can do. And then it’s all about furthering your career and finding whatever is best for your family at that point. So, hopefully it will be with an NBA team.”

Davies joins Pistons for the summer

Also among former BYU players in the summer league, Brandon Davies will play with the Detroit Pistons’ squad in 2016, the NBA team announced Wednesday. The former Provo High power forward played two years in the NBA before spending 2015 with Elon Chalon in France and moving to Italy’s Pallacanestro Varese.

Detroit is scheduled to play in the Orlando Summer League beginning July 2.

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