Updated rookie rankings:
Jimmer still comes in last in our rookie rankings but he did lower his average score (a positive in our rankings) after having the best game of his career.
Click on the Rookie Stats link in the menu above to see all of the specific stats.
We are almost a quarter of the way through the season and it is time to check in and see how Jimmer is doing.
As a reminder, here are the goals that we set for Jimmer:
And here is how Jimmer is doing in those categories:
As you can see, he is struggling. Not just according to JimmerStats, but according to any system that measures a basketball players’ stats. The only category that he is surpassing our goal in is his FT% (12/13 on the season).
Looking at it more closely, we can see how many times Jimmer has reached or surpassed his goals in a game:
It would be one thing if he was coming close in the categories but he is pretty far off. Did we overestimate how Jimmer’s game would translate the NBA? Perhaps, but we don’t think that is necessarily the case. Jimmer can reach these goals if he can snap out of the funk that he is currently in.
Below I have included a comparison of the 14 games that Steph Curry played in November of his rookie year to the first 15 games of Jimmer’s career:
Steph’s overall numbers are certainly better and he outplays Jimmer in every category except FT%. The stat that we found interesting was how Steph struggled to score the ball as Jimmer has. Steph averaged a point every 2.97 minutes while Jimmer is not far behind at 3.07. This could be because Steph was spending more of his time distributing (assisting twice as often as Jimmer has) but it also tells us that we need to be patient. Curry made huge strides as his rookie year went on and although he is far ahead of Jimmer 15 games in, Jimmer can still make those same strides.
Once he gets out his current shooting funk and proves that he deserves more minutes, we suspect that Jimmer will begin to reach and surpass our goals much more frequently.
Rookie stats have been updated.
We have included “Rookie Rankings” for the first time.
There are seven categories that the players are ranked on from a scale of 1-8, 1 being the best of the players in that category with 8 obviously being the worst. The average of the seven categories is then accumulated with the lowest score being the best.
Kyrie Irving comes in as the best rookie point guard in our inaugural rookie rankings with Ricky Rubio right on his tail.
Jimmer comes in ranked last of the point guards with a 6.0 average. He is ranked 8th in MPP, MPA and FG% while his FT% is the only category where he ranks in the upper half.
Click the Rookie Stats link above or click here.
Rookie stats have been updated.
We also have included Isaiah Thomas in the comparison even though he wasn’t a first round pick.
Click the Rookie Stats link above or click here.
We have placed all of Jimmer’s current highlights in one location:
New game highlights will be added as they are made available.
You can also click the Highlights link from the menu above.
We will be comparing Jimmer’s season to some of the other rookie point guards that were taken in the first round of last year’s draft.
We will be watching the following rookies:
Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers – 1st overall selection
Ricky Rubio, Minnesota Timberwolves – 5th overall (2009)
Brandon Knight, Detroit Pistons – 8th overall
Kemba Walker, Charlotte Bobcats – 9th overall
Iman Shumpert, New York Knicks – 17th overall
Norris Cole, Miami Heat – 28th overall
These stats will be updated frequently and we will review the progress once a week.
Click the Rookie Stats link above or click here.
(Green highlights represent the best in a category, red represent the worst)
Season highs in MPA, MPS and AST/TO ratio.
He missed a few open shots but made an impact in other areas by setting up his teammates.
The Kings seem to finally be running a semblance of an offense which is allowing Jimmer to create in the half-court.
All around frustrating game for Jimmer.
Not only did he have a hard time shooting the ball (2-10 fgs, 1-7 3pts), his teammates did as well. Jimmer had 7 CHBAs including 4 in the key. Three of those key CHBAs led to 4 points at the free-throw line which was a season high for Jimmer. He is currently averaging 5.5 CHBAs per game (2.3 apg).
Jimmer’s sluggish offensive performance carried over to the defensive end as he gave up a season high 17 points. Toney Douglas made shot after shot on Jimmer while Landry Fields made a few easy buckets down low.
Here’s to Jimmer bouncing back today against the Hornets!
In honor of Bill Simmons we will be using ESPN’s Trade Machine to create fake Jimmer trades with every team the Kings play this season. First up: the New York Knicks
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=76gb6xa
In this trade the Knicks give up Iman Shumpert and their 2012 1st round pick (top 20 protected) for Jimmer Fredette.
Why do the Knicks say yes?
The Knicks need help at the point guard position in a bad way. Toney Douglas has nowhere near the play-creating ability that Jimmer does and Mike Bibby’s best years are 3-4 years behind him. Yes they signed Baron Davis, but with him shelved for almost a quarter of the season this gives them a starting PG right away, insurance for Baron Davis the rest of year, and their PG of the future.
Jimmer would fit in well with this run-and-gun team. The addition of Tyson Chandler makes them much better defensively but they are still coached by offensive guru Mike D’Antoni. Also, if the rumors become reality and Phil Jackson takes over the squad next year Jimmer should be able to run the triangle much better than Derek Fisher, right?
Why do the Kings say yes?
The Kings really want Tyreke Evans to be a PG (see starting lineup: Evans, Thornton, Salmons, Hayes, Cousins) even though their best lineup seems to be one with Jimmer in place of Salmons. Shumpert (who looks to be a steal in this years draft at 17) gives them a bigger combo guard (how they are playing Jimmer) that can play right away in a three-guard rotation with Evans and Thornton.
They also receive a future first round pick which will come in the 23-28 range in a deep 2012 NBA draft. Is that enough to compensate them for giving up Jimmer who they obviously value more than Shumpert?
Does this trade happen?
No. I think both teams would say no to this trade. Knicks are high on Shumpert and he looks to break back into their rotation when he comes back from injury. Baron Davis, when healthy and motivated, will be a much better PG option than Jimmer anyway.
Kings would not give up on Jimmer this early, even for an extra first round pick. Shumpert plays more like Evans and that is not what they need right now for their offense.
Here is a trade for the Kings we like better:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=7kge6g9
This trade was mentioned in Bill Simmon’s recent NBA preview and we liked what we heard.
Evans for Vesely and McGee or Vesely and the Wizards 2012 unprotected pick.
Why we like this trade?
New starting lineup: Fredette, Thornton, Vesely, Cousins, McGee.
Cousins could be an absolute beast at the 4 and if the Wizards don’t want to part with McGee then the Kings would secure themselves a surefire lottery pick in an extremely deep draft and could then build around Fredette, Thornton, Vesely, Cousins and two potential lottery picks next year.
Not a bad foundation.
The goals that we have set for Jimmer can all be calculated using the standard stats that one can find on any sports website.
We also will keep track of a few additional categories that can’t be found on standard sports sites.
First we will take a detailed look at Jimmer’s “Playmaking” ability.
All of his assists will be categorized in the following manner:
KEY – assists where the scorer takes his shot from inside the key.
OPJ – assists where the scorer takes his shot outside the key, yet inside the three-point line, and has an open look.
OP3 – assists where the scorer makes an open three-point basket.
COJ – Same as the OPJ category except that the scorer makes a contested jumper.
CO3 – Same as the OP3 category except that the score makes a contested three-point jumper.
These categorizations will help us further break down Jimmer’s assists. It is obvious that a KEY assist is a better assist than one where Jimmer passes to a teammate that is completely covered and they happen to make a tough shot on the defense.
We also introduce a category titled the “Could Have Been Assist”. They will be broken down into the same 5 categories as above. A CHBA is a play where Jimmer passes to a teammate and that teammate shoots and misses. If the teammate had made the shot it would have counted as an assist but because he did not, it will be kept as a CHBA. This will track how well Jimmer is distributing the ball even if his teammates are not making the shots he is creating for them.
HKY – A hockey assist is an assist where Jimmer makes a pass that leads to another pass which leads to a basket. Hence the name “Hockey Assist” as this is routinely counted as an assist in hockey.
His total assists will be calculated which take the sum of all of his assists, CHBAs and hockey assists.
“Points Created” take into account whether or not the assist led to a 2 point basket or 3 point basket and will also add points that were made at the free-throw line. IE Jimmer passes to Cousins under the basket and he is fouled while missing a layup. First, this will go under the CHBA KEY category. Second, after Cousins makes 1 of 2 free-throws, 1 point will be added to the points created category because technically, Jimmer created that point even though standard stats won’t count that as an assist because Cousins missed the layup while being fouled.
Drive Lane Stats:
We will track how many times Jimmer drives into the lane and what the result was.
ATT – Drive the Lane attempts
PTS – Number of times a drive led to points other than Jimmer assists. This will be when Jimmer himself scores or when his drive led to a basket directly without being an assist. IE Jimmer drives and draws help from the center. He misses the floater but because the center had to help Cousins grabs an easy offensive rebound and lays the ball in.
AST – Number of times a drive resulted in an assist from Jimmer to a teammate.
MISS – Missed shot by Jimmer.
CHB – Could have been assist. Drive by Jimmer led to a shot by a teammate that was missed.
TO – Turnover by Jimmer.
NEU – Drives by Jimmer where none of the previous things happened. IE drive and dish where the teammate doesn’t shoot, drive and pull-out by Jimmer, etc.
These are then broken down into two more categoris: points and positive.
Points combine the PTS and AST categories above.
Positive combines PTS, AST, MISS, and CHB. This shows how often Jimmer got into the lane and something positive happened, even if it didn’t result in points.
On Ball Screens:
A staple in the Kings offense with Jimmer is to set on ball screens for him. We will track those just as we track his drives into the lane.
And lastly, we will look at a few miscellaneous categories:
CH – Plays where Jimmer is called for an offensive foul.
FD – This keeps track of Jimmer’s ability to draw fouls on the other team, even if they don’t lead to free-throws.
DEF – Deflections. How often does Jimmer get his hands on the ball?
CHA – Attempts by Jimmer to take a charge on the defensive end.
CHC – Attempts to take a charge that were called so by the refs.
PGV – Point Given Up. These are points that are given up by Jimmer. Plays where Jimmer’s man drives on him and then creates an easy basket for a teammate due to poor defense by Jimmer will also be counted (IE Rose blowing by Jimmer, Cousins helping and Boozer getting an easy dunk). 3-on-1 fast breaks where Jimmer is the only player back will not be counted. This stat is obviously subjective (like many of the detailed stats) as I will not always know whose fault the play is because I won’t know what the defensive game plan is by the coaches. For most plays it will be easy to ascertain whether or not Jimmer is responsible for the other team scoring.
PTS +/- Points + Points Created – Points Given Up. Is Jimmer’s offense making up for his not-so-stellar defense?
JimmerStats 