I don't know how much of Jimmer everybody was able to watch during the college season aside from his highlights. The mtn and versus aren't the easiest channels to find. I watched a lot of Jimmer so I wanted to give you my take on who he is and how successful he is likely going to be in the league.
He will help sell tickets and generate revenue for the Kings. He'll sell a lot of jerseys (just like Tebow did) and the Kings should anticipate an increase in ticket sales. I think that you'll find the less avid basketball fan more willing to come to games, my wife cried when she found out that Jimmer wouldn't be playing for the Jazz and she declared the Kings her new favorite team : )
In the highlights that everybody saw all year they saw him hitting shots from Jimmer range, but he's much more complete of a player than many people realize. A friend of mine that I play basketball with was invited to watch the Jimmer vs Kemba workout for the Jazz, and he said that Jimmer was the better player of the two. The most impressive thing is that he stayed in front of Kemba on defense. He said Kemba hit some tough shots and made some nice plays but Jimmer did a good job defending him. He also said that Jimmer really made some nice passes which is another thing that scouts wondered if he was capable of doing.
I think you all have reason to be very optimistic. Go watch a Mark Price highlight video and if you've been able to watch Jimmer play you'll see a lot of similarites aside from their elite outside shooting abilities. They penetrate and hit shots in the lane the same way, they finish around the rim the same way, they move and create space similarly, and I think Jimmer will surprise us and we'll find him passing like Price did too. The wikipedia article about Price sounds a lot like Jimmer as well, it talks about how Price was criticized as being too slow and too small to play in the NBA and it quotes Steve Kerr as saying that Price was the pioneer of splitting the double team on ball screens. Jimmer was pretty much double teamed all year long at BYU and his splitting of double teams is really impressive.
If you don't like the Price comparison I think Steph Curry is a really easy comparison to make. I anticipate Jimmer's career and numbers to mirror that of Curry's, but I like the Price comparison because of how similar their style of play is (Price's numbers are very similar to Curry's also).
I know a lot of you are upset about the draft day trade since Knight dropped so far and would have been available at 7. I think you'll find that Jimmer is just as good of a fit for the Kings as Knight would have been. Jimmer is much more NBA ready than Knight, which is a big need for the Kings (a lot of you have been saying that you need a veteran PG, Jimmer has a decent shot at rookie of the year this year so I think the Kings PG position will be just fine with Tyreke and Jimmer there). Jimmer's upside is pretty equal to Knight's, I don't think Knight has much of a chance of being better than Price and Curry. And Jimmer is the perfect backcourt player to put alongside Evans, their strengths and weaknesses really compliment each other well.
I don't know if Jimmer will start this year, I think we'll see the backcourt trio of Evans, Jimmer and Thornton all get 28+ minutes regardless. If I had to guess I would say Thornton will start, Jimmer will come in off the bench at SG when playing alongside Evans, and would be moved to PG when playing alongside Thornton. It's a heck of a back court, and I think we have good things to come.
He will help sell tickets and generate revenue for the Kings. He'll sell a lot of jerseys (just like Tebow did) and the Kings should anticipate an increase in ticket sales. I think that you'll find the less avid basketball fan more willing to come to games, my wife cried when she found out that Jimmer wouldn't be playing for the Jazz and she declared the Kings her new favorite team : )
In the highlights that everybody saw all year they saw him hitting shots from Jimmer range, but he's much more complete of a player than many people realize. A friend of mine that I play basketball with was invited to watch the Jimmer vs Kemba workout for the Jazz, and he said that Jimmer was the better player of the two. The most impressive thing is that he stayed in front of Kemba on defense. He said Kemba hit some tough shots and made some nice plays but Jimmer did a good job defending him. He also said that Jimmer really made some nice passes which is another thing that scouts wondered if he was capable of doing.
I think you all have reason to be very optimistic. Go watch a Mark Price highlight video and if you've been able to watch Jimmer play you'll see a lot of similarites aside from their elite outside shooting abilities. They penetrate and hit shots in the lane the same way, they finish around the rim the same way, they move and create space similarly, and I think Jimmer will surprise us and we'll find him passing like Price did too. The wikipedia article about Price sounds a lot like Jimmer as well, it talks about how Price was criticized as being too slow and too small to play in the NBA and it quotes Steve Kerr as saying that Price was the pioneer of splitting the double team on ball screens. Jimmer was pretty much double teamed all year long at BYU and his splitting of double teams is really impressive.
If you don't like the Price comparison I think Steph Curry is a really easy comparison to make. I anticipate Jimmer's career and numbers to mirror that of Curry's, but I like the Price comparison because of how similar their style of play is (Price's numbers are very similar to Curry's also).
I know a lot of you are upset about the draft day trade since Knight dropped so far and would have been available at 7. I think you'll find that Jimmer is just as good of a fit for the Kings as Knight would have been. Jimmer is much more NBA ready than Knight, which is a big need for the Kings (a lot of you have been saying that you need a veteran PG, Jimmer has a decent shot at rookie of the year this year so I think the Kings PG position will be just fine with Tyreke and Jimmer there). Jimmer's upside is pretty equal to Knight's, I don't think Knight has much of a chance of being better than Price and Curry. And Jimmer is the perfect backcourt player to put alongside Evans, their strengths and weaknesses really compliment each other well.
I don't know if Jimmer will start this year, I think we'll see the backcourt trio of Evans, Jimmer and Thornton all get 28+ minutes regardless. If I had to guess I would say Thornton will start, Jimmer will come in off the bench at SG when playing alongside Evans, and would be moved to PG when playing alongside Thornton. It's a heck of a back court, and I think we have good things to come.
