2011 NBA Draft: Jimmer Fredette Is a Nice Player, but He's No Stephen Curry
BYU guard Jimmer Fredette's college career ended with his team's overtime loss to the Florida Gators on Thursday night, but his real journey may have just begun.
While speculating on where Fredette may be drafted in June, some observers have fairly compared the BYU guard to current Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
Both Curry and Fredette are around the same size, and both have the reputation as big-time scorers with a knack for long-distance shooting.
However, that's about as far as the similarities between the players go.
If some NBA general manager drafts Fredette with visions of Curry in their heads, he may be setting himself up for disappointment.
The first striking difference is the path that each player will take to the NBA.
BYU is not known as a big-time school for basketball, but compared to Davidson College, where Curry played, it might as well be in the Big East.
Davidson is a small school in a smaller town just outside of Charlotte, NC, but if you were ever driving through, don't blink because you'll miss it.
The town has a row of shops, a traffic light, the college and that's about it.
Curry had been shunned by the bigger schools in the ACC, but as a freshman he had major Tobacco Road schools like North Carolina and Duke regretting their indifference.
Curry led the nation's freshmen in scoring, but his legend was made during his sophomore year in the 2008 NCAA tournament.
Curry led tiny Davidson on a magical run through the postseason that ended one game short of the Final Four in a close loss to the eventual champion Kansas Jayhawks.
What made Davidson's journey in 2008 so special was that there was perhaps only one other player on Davidson's roster, besides Curry, who was even a legitimate Division I player.
Despite his success, there were still doubts if his talent would translate in the NBA.
Many observers questioned whether or not he would be able to get his shot off against bigger, quicker guards.
Fredette will likely face many of the same issues, as he doesn't have the advantage of having a former NBA player as a father.
Dell Curry was one of the NBA's top sharpshooters during his time; Stephen undoubtedly was able to benefit from the time spent shooting around with his father and his teammates.
Fredette doesn't have Curry's natural gifts either.
Curry is quicker than Fredette, he is a better defender and, as it turns out, Curry was underrated as a floor general as well.
Curry's 5.9 assists per game were overlooked during his final season at Davidson, but once he arrived in the NBA, people began to take notice of his abilities as a distributor.
Fredette did average 4.3 assists this season, but his natural position appears to be shooting guard and if he hopes to transition in the same manner as Curry, his court vision will have to improve.
Fredette may benefit from the fact that he stayed in college all four years, but at this point, selecting him with a high pick seems like a much bigger reach than drafting Curry was.
