NBA Draft Combine, Day One Recap

Jimmer Fredette is participating in the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago this week. See below what Jimmer, the ESPN experts and other prospects had to say on Thursday.

ESPN Insider Chad Ford on Jimmer Fredette’s Strengths

“He has incredible shooting range and shooting ability. He’s tough. He’s got strength. He can create space. He can get to the basket. I think he has a high basketball IQ. I think he can play point guard in the NBA.”

“I got to talk to both Malcolm Thomas and Kawhi Leonard (in Las Vegas). At San Diego State they played Jimmer a number of times. They also got to play UConn in the Tournament. I asked them who they would rather guard, Kemba Walker or Jimmer Fredette. They said Kemba Walker any day. If you watched what Jimmer Fredette did to San Diego State over and over again you’d understand.”

ESPN College Basketball Analyst Len Elmore

“The most important thing for Jimmer Fredette is the fact that he has range. There’s always room for a shooter in the NBA. And when you have that kind of range, a lot of guys aren’t going to guard you out there. It’s just not natural to guard a guy 30 feet from the basket.”

ESPN Analyst Tom Penn

“Jimmer right now is immediate help (for an NBA team). He will come in an NBA game and he will make shots which is the No. 1 thing coaches want.”

Connecticut All-American Kemba Walker on Jimmer Fredette

“Jimmer definitely deserved all of the awards he got. He had a crazy year, a great year. One day we’ll play against each other and people will get what they want to see.”

BYU Head Coach Dave Rose

“It’s hard to verbalize what he’s meant to us. He came in as a highly touted player for us. We thought he could really come in and be an immediate contributor and be an all-league player, but he left after four years with six national player of the year awards and caught the hearts of the entire country. Anywhere I go in the country in a basketball setting and mention that I’m the coach at BYU, everyone wants to know about Jimmer Fredette.”

“We won a lot of games with Jimmer. He brought a lot of attention to not only BYU basketball but to Brigham Young University.”

“I think you can find weaknesses about any player if that’s what you’re looking. For me, in my experience with Jimmer, I won’t question anything because he’s such a competitor. He’s a winner. He’s a great teammate and guys will rally around him. His ability to score the ball is something that is really special.”

Jimmer Fredette on his performance

“I think I did pretty well. I came out and shot the ball pretty well from the three-point line and the college three. One thing I’ve been working on is my lateral quickness and being able to stop guys from getting into the middle. I thought I did a pretty good job on defense today. It was a good work out for the first day, just getting the jitters out and getting ready to go.”

CLICK HERE to watch a replay of ESPNU’s Thursday coverage.