Jimmer's Second Day in Second City

Jimmer's Second Day in Second City


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Jimmer Fredette was back on the floor in Chicago on Friday, taking part in the second and final day of on-floor activities at the 2011 NBA Draft Combine.

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After Thursday workouts that included shooting, passing and defensive drills, Friday was reserved for agility and speed testing, along with some court work.

ESPNU's Friday on-air coverage began with analyst Chad Ford relating that some NBA GMs were evidently not thrilled with Fredette's comfortable execution of Thursday's drills.

"(NBA) guys are going to pick apart people, and they were picking apart Jimmer Fredette a little bit," said Ford. "They didn't like that Fredette didn't go full speed in the drills."

"He shot the ball very well, but he seemed like he was more in warm-ups, floating around a little bit. It's not going to be a big deal if you've seen Jimmer Fredette play in person; you know he can really hustle and he plays very hard, but he didn't seem to be taking the drills as seriously as some of the other guys, and the NBA guys dinged him on it."

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Fredette's point guard group was first to hit the floor on Thursday; his group was scheduled fourth on Friday.

Fredette's performance on Friday was unremarkable, in part because ESPNU's coverage didn't seem to focus as much on Fredette as it had on Thursday. A slight stumble in one of the lane agility drills was the only notable aspect of his routine. Other than that, it was just another day of running, jumping and shooting.

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Beyond Ford's assessment above, Fredette was said to have stood out among Thursday's performers--on the floor and off. One NBA exec is reported to have said that his interview with Fredette was "the most impressive interview I've ever done."

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Friday's analysis included the following:

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ESPNU's Len Elmore, on the debate over whether Fredette can be a point guard in the NBA: "(Jimmer) can make the plays (as a PG), and he makes the plays because he's such a threat offensively."

"(Jimmer) was asked to shoot (at BYU);when it came down to making plays and getting people involved...Jimmer got people involved. When you get to this level, when you've got guys who can finish for you, I can think Jimmer Fredette can make the plays."

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ESPNU's Tom Penn: "I just do not see handing him the ball and saying 'go run the team as a point guard'; he doesn't feel like that...he doesn't have that skill-set; he doesn't think that way."

"The question for me is are his deficiencies going to be hidden enough, and can he make enough baskets, a la J.J. Redick's big baskets."

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ESPNU's Fran Fraschilla: "One of his greatest strengths early in his career is, he's going to make momentum-changing threes in games."

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ESPNU's Chad Ford: "I think (Jimmer's) got a good basketball IQ, but he was not asked to be giving the basketball around at BYU; he was asked to score."

Ford also compared Jimmer to how teams viewed Steve Nash coming out of Santa Clara, as a scoring, not passing, PG.

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Former All-American point guard, NBA veteran and current Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Damon Stoudamire: "Obviously, the guy can shoot; he plays the game a little differently than everyone else...he has a motor to him. Like (Mavs' guard J.J. Barea), you can see that Jimmer can have that same kind of ability to take over a game in the NBA."

"He's a risk taker, and I like risk-takers."

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As an upstate New Yorker, Fredette is garnering attention from the media who cover the Knicks.

This article in the New York Post says Jimmer is a potential D'Antoni draft day target.

Fredette says his first scheduled team workout is with the Knicks on June 2nd.

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For the record, Fredette's measurements from the combine:

Height: 6'2.5" (with shoes), 6'0.75" (without)

Weight: 196 lbs

Wingspan: 6'4.5"

Here are the measurements for every player at the combine.

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