Jimmer Fredette is gaining a lot of deserved attention right now as being one of the best college basketball players in the country. He is even gaining attention from NBA stars. I saw a few quotes on yahoo the other day from tweets of these players. They included:
Jimmer Fredette is cold #respect.
-John Wall
Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the world!!!
-Kevin Durant
There is no question that Fredette is among the college basketball elite. But will this translate into a successful NBA career? There are those who have their doubts. A comment on the yahoo article compared Fredette to former Duke player J. J. Redick. J. J. Redick was an outstanding college player, who has been a below average NBA player. One of my facebook friends compared Fredette to Ty Detmer – great college player who likely will not be great at the next level.
From what little I have seen of Jimmer Fredette, I think he needs a lot of improvement to be a star in the NBA. Can he create his own shot against NBA defense? Can he defend point and shooting guards in the NBA? These are questions that will need firm positive answers if the Jimmer is to be successful at the next level.
Eric Nielson
Small and Simple 
Looking at his stats this year, the concerning things to me are low assists, and a high assist/turnover ratio.
Though he officially plays point that’s not his functional position. He’s a two guard on the offense and as a result I would expect his assist number to be on par with a typical two. He does tend to turn the ball over a bit too much regardless of position but that’s as much a function of him accounting for 30% of his team’s offensive production. The comparisons to Reddick are inapt. Reddick was a pure shooter– if a defender made him put the ball on the floor the threat of him scoring diminished severely. Jimmer scores off screens and the dribble and he gets to the line nearly tree times more often than Reddick. Jimmer is also much more athletic than Reddick. In a recent SI article about how best to defend Jimmer it was mentioned by one player who had defended both Fredette and Kimba Walker that Jimmer got more elevation on his jump shot than Walker who is considered an NBA shoe-in. I think comparisons to Allen Iverson and Chris Jackson (ne Mahmud Abdul-Rauf) are more appropriate both from a style and statistical perspective.
Excellent points Paul. I wonder how good a Steve Nash comparison might be. Or a Darren Williams.
But you may be right about the point guard position also. Maybe a Hornacek type? It will be interesting to see.
Seems yahoo is thinking the same thing I am:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AsDtBiM171Sf50jPK13DWZk5nYcB?slug=aw-fredettenba012811