I could care less what Jimmer calls himself. My concern is that Reke, Thornton and Salmons may never give him the ball so he won't reach his potential. I can't even imagine how we will ever know if Jimmer can play point on this team.
I don't expect much from him defensively for many of the reasons Brick just mentioned. So for Jimmer to have value, he has to score like crazy. I think he can, as soon as we learn to pass the ball on this team.
Umm ... I don't know about you but in 2 preseason games I've seen the ball kicked out to Jimmer on several occasions, so I really don't know what you're talking about. Also, Jimmer's role on the team is serving as a playmaker and hitting shots, perhaps creating a bit of his own offense when Tyreke and Marcus are out. His ability to shoot alone brings value to the team because defenses cannot just crowd the paint. And please don't act as if the Kings never pass the ball to open shooters. If you feel that way you clearly haven't watched any games. Our problem is over-dribbling, and not moving the ball smoothly within an offensive scheme. We don't have problems with finding open shooters when they do get open.
Hmmm....we over dribble and don't move the ball smoothly within the offense. Know how to solve that problem? Pass the ball. I was actually paying your Jimmer a compliment, so relax.
The role for Jimmer you described is the same role as just about any guard in the NBA. I'm really not sure what you're trying to educate me on with your post.
Honeycutt is more athletic than Cisco, and in short order will be a better defender. He comes out of the UCLA system, which leans very heavily on the defensive side of the ball. Personally I'm not a big fan of Howlands, because I don't think he fully develops players. But no one can argue that most of his players come out of college playing good defense. Honeycutt is a very good passer and an underated shooter. I had him projected at the bottom half of the first round. So I think he's a steal where we drafted him. He has a very good feel for the game. He always seems to be in the right place at the right time. I think at worse, he'll be a solid rotation player off the bench, and at best, he could end up being a starter down the road.
Im not really sure that he helps this team at all if he cant play defense. He has to be able to at least stay in front of his man. If he continues to be a terrible defender and gets significant minutes anyway im going to be pissed lol
Im not really sure that he helps this team at all if he cant play defense. He has to be able to at least stay in front of his man. If he continues to be a terrible defender and gets significant minutes anyway im going to be pissed lol
You said that for Jimmer to have value the team would first have to start learning to pass the ball. That doesn't make sense because in 2 preseason games he's gotten the ball for numerous wide open 3s... And no, he does not have to score like crazy. We already have Thornton, Tyreke and Cousins to do that. Jimmer's role is very much a role playing one, but that doesn't mean he isn't of value to the etam. Last I checked, role players don't score like crazy.
I want to see Jimmer score from all over the court and do well. Doesn't mean that I can't be honest about what he is. The defensiveness from the Jimmer cult makes it difficult to fully jump on the bandwagon. All this "Trust me, he can do everything" talk is ridiculous. If it was so obvious that he is the best scorer, great point guard with great athleticism and an above average defender coming out of college, then the people who get paid to draft players would be foolish to not draft him first. Let the kid grow into what he's going to be, but be honest about who he is now.
Goat Sucker, we are talking about a rookie who has yet to play a real NBA game. It would be the extraordinary rookie that grasped NBA defense right out of the gate. As Italics has mentioned, he already has shown improvement. Defensively I don't think you can ask much more from a guy his size at this point of his career. Will he get better? Probably but how much better is for the future to reveal.
My impression of Jimmer is that he is a real gym rat with a good basketball IQ and although always will be limited by his height, will do just fine.
Jimmer is a fantastic shooter and there aren't any questions about that.
He doesn't have great NBA athleticism BUT he has shown to have decent quickness and decent upper-body strength. His combine results showed that he was far more athletic than most people perceived him to be. (Now to be fair, a lot of combine drills can be worked on to enhance your success, and I believe that Jimmer did work on those skills. But if he's willing to work that hard for combine tests, that should indicate how hard he is going to work for true NBA readiness on the defensive end.)
I've been saying since before we drafted him, that he would be an upgrade over Beno defensively. Now that isn't saying much, as Beno was benched due to his defense and replaced by Luther Head last year. But Jimmer has better athleticism than Beno, and he knows what the critics are saying, and he's a competitor which will work to prove them wrong. It might take a while for Jimmer to learn NBA defense, but once he gets it down, he'll be less of a liability than Beno.
As to the point-guard skills, you just had to watch him in college, and I don't mean the ESPN highlights.
Jimmer was a great facilitator at BYU. Sometimes he'd spend the entire first half of a game, taking advantage of the defenses' attention to set up his players. He'd use his cross-over to get into the lane to set up players, and showed a good knack of splitting defenders to also get into the lane.
The only people who questioned his ability to distribute the ball were those who didn't watch a lot of his game. He's such a great shooter that people focused solely on that elite skill, while ignoring his good passing skills. Now he's not a passing savant, but he's a smart player who will make more good decisions than bad ones when trying to set up his teammates.
It's going to take him a bit of time to put it all together, but he's going to be fine. I don't expect stardom from him. I'm thinking 20-25 minutes a game as a 3rd guard as Thornton is better than him and should be starting next to Tyreke.
Just because he's an elite shooter doesn't mean that he automatically is unable to be a good passer as well. He does one at the highest levels (shooting) and another at a good level (passing), if he was elite at both, as well as being an unparrelled athlete, then yes, he should have been the #1 pick, but he isn't that guy.
But I was very happy with the pick once we lost out on a top seed and think he's going to do a lot to help this team.
Just how will Jimmer be limited by his height? He's a PG and 6'2", which is about average height for PG in the NBA. He's also very strong for the position.
I think basketball players tend to be better when they are taller. 6'2" isn't a tall NBA payer. I was complimenting him. Open some more presents.