i do, because unlike those who hawk on behalf of jimmer, i'm much more interested in the long-term prospects of the team. i care not one iota about an unathletic tweener guard whose nba prospects are limited, and who doesn't have much of a future on an offense-first team with an already-crowded non-defensive backcourt. i see long-term value in isaiah thomas as an inexpensive sparkplug off the bench. i do not see similar long-term value in jimmer. it's that simple. he gets squeezed out through no fault of his own. he was drafted far too high by cynical owners who wanted to sell his jersey for an influx of fast cash...
that said, i feel kinda sorry for jimmer. he should have been drafted later, with fewer expectations, and by a team that might be able to find a use his for his shooting off the bench. the kings are not that team, in my opinion. they need to bring in defensive personnel at the expense of their stockpile of offensively-inclined players. personally, i'm sick of comparing the dreadful defensive ability of isaiah thomas and jimmer fredette. sick. of. it. crying foul on IT's poopooty defense is not a convincing argument to give jimmer more playing time. i'm looking at the overall skillsets of the two players, and while neither should come within a mile of starting, in my opinion, IT has more utility than jimmer off the bench, so jimmer gets squeezed outta the rotation...
Just for the hell of it, I'd like to point out that Larry Bird wasn't very athletic either. Of course, he was 6'9", but I clearly remember all the criticisms connected to him coming out of college. Magic Johnson wasn't a great athlete as well. Here's the thing, if your just an average athlete, and that's where I put Jimmer, then you have to have skills and BBIQ that more than make up for the lack of athleticism. I like Jimmer! As I said in another post, I think I saw every game he played at BYU in his last two years. He, at the moment has one great skill. He can shoot the rock. And until McLemore arrived, he was hands down the best 3 pt shooter on the team, and he managed to do so without ever being able to get into a consistent flow, due to not getting regular playing time.
That said, he was lacking in areas of need. Especially his handle, which to be honest with you, I thought would be adequate enough for the NBA based on what I saw at BYU. He had trouble with backcourt pressure. However, the Kings did little to help him bring the ball up. Does anyone remember Webber, and later Miller screening Bibby while he brought the ball up the court. So Ok, its apparent to me at least, that Jimmer has improved his handle. He's also shown better BBIQ in knowing when to drive and when not to. He's done a little creating off the dribble for himself, and others. Nothing fancy, but its an improvement. However, I would be very reluctant to put him in the backcourt with IT. Thats going just a little too small for me. I can see Jimmer in the backcourt with Vasquez. Obviously Malone pictured that idea as well since he started them together in one of the games. If I remember correctly, that worked fairly well.
Where I agree with our emotional new poster is that there seems to be a little bit of a double standard when it comes to Jimmer. Few mention his good games once their logged into history, and few remember the bad games that either Thornton or IT have had. Both Thornton and IT get some slack, because their both so called "Proven Players", and Jimmers accomplishments are discarded as nothing more than a small sampling, and therefore not credible enough to make a judgement on. Now I'm generalizing here, so please don't take offense. I think its fair to say that Jimmer was drafted into a big giant mess of an organization that had little in the way of resources for player development. I never felt that Jimmer would be the same player in the NBA that he was at BYU. I doubt he did. But I did feel that he could become a valuable piece on a good team. I suspect that if he had been drafted by the Spurs, that by this time there would be those on the forum trying to figure out how we could trade for him.
VF21 stated that if he's good enough, then he'll earn his way into the rotation. Not in those exact words, but that's the gist of it. And for the most part, I agree with that statement. I hope that the coaching staff is giving him equal consideration, and the fact that they gave him serious minutes in that one game, seems to validate that they are. So I suggest we wait and see what transpires, and if your a big Jimmer fan, just don't read posts that infuriate you. A post is just someone's opinion, its not a congressional law. Cream usually rises to the top, so lets give it a chance. Couldn't end without at least one metaphor.