Bracing for the inevitable

Jimmer Fredette
Courtesy of nba.com

There is no possible way the Sacramento Kings keep Jimmer Fredette (a.k.a. The Pride of Glens Falls, NY) now, is there?

A team already loaded with guards just drafted two more last night -- Kansas shooting guard Ben McLemore in the first round, and Detroit point guard Ray McCallum in the second round. Simple math dictates that no team can have seven guards on its active roster, so at least one of them has to go.

Sadly for those of us who live in upstate New York, the player most likely to be banished from the Sacramento King-dom is Jimmer Fredette. His two-year career with the Kings has been spent mostly as a role player off the bench. Some nights, he'd get 16 minutes and score 16 points. Other nights, he'd be just watching the action. Overall, he averaged 7.4 points per game.

The overwhelming conclusion is that Fredette never did enough to earn consistent minutes every game on a team that carried five guards. And given that he was a first-round draft pick (originally by Milwaukee, but traded to Sacramento), he'd have to be considered a bust.

Still, I think Fredette deserves a chance to gain consistent minutes to prove once and for all whether he is a NBA-caliber player. He proved he was the best player at the collegiate level in his senior season at BYU (when he was named the Player of the Year). He still has the ability to hit three pointers, he can drive to the basket, he can pass the ball and, by all accounts I've heard, he's been a good teammate. He just needs to be on a team that needs an undersized, unconventional No. 3 guard. That team is not Sacramento.

Hopefully, there will be an NBA team out there willing to give Fredette a shot. There are rumors that Indiana or Utah are interested in him, though neither one traded their draft picks for him last night. Perhaps a deal will be worked out in the days ahead, or maybe Sacramento just drops Fredette and some other NBA team picks him up.

All that any of us in upstate New York really want for Jimmer Fredette is to have another opportunity to shine like he did when he averaged more than 28 points per game as a senior at BYU. We're willing to admit that opportunity won't come in Sacramento, but we're hoping he gets to do it somewhere in the NBA. To see him have to go to Europe to play professionally would hurt.

What would hurt worse, though, is seeing Fredette sit on Sacramento's bench for a third straight season. He deserves a better fate than that.