Sacramento Kings fans turn out as Jimmer Fredette arrives

 
The Jimmer jet officially touched down in Sacramento around 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, carrying Kings rookie Jimmer Fredette, and the scene at Sacramento International Airport was fit for a rock star of Bono's ilk, not a smiling 22-year-old from upstate New York.
Welcome to the Jimmer Show.
A few hundred people crowded around baggage claim at Terminal A for a glimpse of the former BYU star, who was acquired by the Kings in the first round of Thursday's NBA draft.
The newest addition to the Kings roster arrived with three handlers at his side and lived up to descriptions of his demeanor, remaining calm and at ease in the face of a media horde.
"I'm excited to be in Sacramento," Fredette said, laughing at a question on whether he was worried about being able to take over the team in his first year.
The hype machine was churning, and the fervor of Kings fans was palpable. Several losing seasons left the Kings with highly touted draft picks Tyreke Evans (No. 4 two years ago), and DeMarcus Cousins (No. 5 last year). But neither generated the hoopla that surrounded Fredette's arrival.
That may be because "Jimmermania" preceded Fredette's selection, as shown by a growing list of "Jimmerisms" touting the talents of the star who is Jimmer Fredette.
"Superman sleeps in a Jimmer Fredette jersey." "Jimmer was in Star Wars – he played 'the Force.' " "Twitter follows Jimmer."
The list goes on. Fredette's place in pop culture was cemented with the YouTube hit "Teach Me How to Jimmer," a remix of the popular song "Teach Me How to Dougie" set to Fredette's BYU highlights. The clip got millions of views in days.
His YouTube channel is hosted by Sports Illustrated and has had 2.2 million views in three weeks. T-shirts sport slogans such as "You got Jimmered!" and "Fredette About It."
As SI reporter Kelli Anderson wrote, Jimmer's name is "as versatile as his game." Jimmer can be a noun (as in to stop someone from "pulling a Jimmer" on you), an adjective ("he's making some Jimmer threes") or, probably most popularly, a verb (as in "you got Jimmered!").
Tracing exactly when Fredette made the leap from talent to household name is hard, but he clearly had no such visions of grandeur as a child in rural Glens Falls, N.Y.
The son of Al and Kay Fredette, Jimmer (his given name is James) was the youngest of three children, and showed a talent for basketball at a young age.
His older brother T.J. pushed him to work hard and took Jimmer to unusual places to work on his game, such as Mount MacGregor Correctional Facility.
In addition to adding to the legend of "the Jimmer," playing against felons paid off in basketball terms. After Jimmer scored from all over the court in hanging 43 points on then-No. 4 San Diego State in January, Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant tweeted, "Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the world!!"
That kind of outburst is what perpetuates Jimmermania, and Sacramento fans look forward to it.
Grant Bollinger of Sacramento, at the airport Friday, lauded Fredette's all-around game. "Jimmer has range, can hit the three, he's just a playmaker," Bollinger said. He called Fredette the new face of the Kings franchise.
And while that's hardly fair for a rookie who just stepped off the plane, Fredette's basketball style – 30-foot jumpers, creative scoop shots around the basket – has so far lived up to the hype.
Six times in his college career Fredette scored more than 40 points. He set BYU scoring records for a single season and with his four-year career. He also swept the major national college basketball awards and silenced many doubters as he carried his upstart Cougars to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

Jimmer Fredette brings rock-star status to Kings

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Kings took a detour through Milwaukee to get him, but hey, who wouldn’t go a few extra miles for a rock star? For Jimmer Fredette? He tweets, he shoots, he scores.
He stars in a documentary.
He is a one-man, predraft publicity machine.
So now that he’s here _ or almost here _ does he play bass or lead guitar? Is he part of the opening act or does he come off the bench? And what does he know about funding mechanisms and construction of new arenas? (Seriously, we would have asked these questions had Fredette’s handlers made him available to the Sacramento media in a late-night, post-draft teleconference, as is the NBA norm. Now we’ll just wait for the news conference that is tentatively scheduled for Saturday).
"When (the Kings) made the trade to No. 10, I thought it was a possibility," Fredette was quoted by NBA media types back in New York. " ... They liked me out there, the Maloofs and coach (Paul Westphal) and (Geoff) Petrie. And now it’s a reality."
Fredette’s selection occurred after an unusually active draft day for Petrie. In a three-team deal in which the Kings moved down from the No. 7 to the No. 10 pick, the Kings also sent point guard Beno Udrih to Milwaukee for former Kings small forward John Salmons.
"We got a very high-quality small forward at a position we really struggled last year, and we felt we could get a really good player at 10," said Petrie.
The Kings hoped to address some of their big weaknesses – perimeter shooting, starting small forward and playmaking – but Salmons’ return is curious.
Basketball is still played with five players and one ball. The Kings frightful death-by-dribbling offense might make a comeback given there isn’t a facilitator among a projected starting unit of Salmons, Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton, DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson.
Someone? Anyone? OK, Cousins is an excellent passer, though he suffers from bouts of carelessness and sticky fingers.
Asked whether there were enough basketballs to go around, Petrie laughed. "You only can play with one," he joked.
Petrie quickly added that the club has retained its salary cap flexibility and anticipates being very aggressive in free agency. The plan is to re-sign Thornton, who is expected to form a three-guard rotation with Evans and Fredette. The hope, of course, is that Fredette comes to training camp and quickly establishes that he is more similar to Stephen Curry or Mark Price than Steve Kerr, J.J. Redick or (gulp) Adam Morrison.
"I think of him as a point guard," said coach Paul Westphal. " ... I don’t think there’s going to be a real difficult learning curve for him."
In his senior year at BYU, the 6-foot-2 Fredette led the nation in scoring (28.9 points per game) and captured most of the major player of the year awards, including Naismith, Wooden, Associated Press. He set school records in points, three-pointers and games played.
Fredette is regarded as an excellent deep shooter and characterized by some NBA types (among them Jerry West) as more of a shotmaker than shooter, as someone capable of creating for others as well as himself. The biggest concern with Fredette is lack of defense.
But that’s nothing new with rookies. That’s something that can be learned. It’s his "fundamental" skills, as Westphal suggested, that most excites the Kings and their fans, as well as Fredette’s legion of followers.

Cavaliers can move past LeBron with Irving

 
CHICAGO – Oh, the uneasiness and irony would’ve been thick had Kyrie Irving been seduced so easily and let LeBron James’(notes) inner circle represent him. From LeBron to Maverick Carter to the industry muscle of the Creative Arts Agency, they relentlessly recruited the Duke star. They wanted to do his contracts, his endorsements, everything. As it turns out, they would’ve marched right back into the life of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, with his next fresh-faced franchise star.
Together, James and his associates had lured Irving’s favorite player, Chris Paul(notes), to the agency, and had James hard on the recruiting trail. No one should underestimate the power of James’ tweets toward a hot, young college and high school star, or a well-time phone call or text here and there.
For parts of Irving’s freshman season at Duke, rival agents believed LeBron’s camp would sign him. “They came very hard for Kyrie,” says an ex-Duke basketball player who spent time on campus this season. “… All over him.”
Yes, the Cavs won the No. 1 overall pick in the draft lottery on Tuesday night, and Irving is the clear choice for them. Privately, Cavaliers officials gushed over Irving this season and prayed they’d get a chance to draft him. As much as ever, the NBA’s a point guard league and contenders are born of great playmakers.
Had Irving been swayed to the flashy, aggressive pitch by CAA and LeBron’s marketing company, there could’ve been some salacious showdown. Lucky for Gilbert, the pitch fell flat on the Irving family, and substance over sizzle ruled the day. Irving chose an agent, Jeff Wechsler, who hadn’t bothered to recruit Irving at all. Lucky for Gilbert, Irving isn’t entangled in an awkward web of the Cavaliers’ yesterday and tomorrow.
To say there’s nothing but ill-will and downright loathing between Gilbert and LeBron’s associates doesn’t begin to cover the territory. Yet now, Kyrie Irving walks into the Cavaliers with no baggage, no connection to the heartbreak of LeBron James’ departure.
“It’s been a slow, long and painful haul to get through it, and maybe this will be the final straw in getting over the hump and getting to the other side,” Gilbert said.
Irving won’t transform Cleveland overnight, but paired with a frontcourt player with the No. 4 pick and the Cavs can make a rapid ascent to relevance again. There’s no replacing LeBron James, but there is pushing past him and Irving has the talent, the character, to wash away the residue of King James’ departure. This should end Gilbert’s tweeting career on James, and that’ll be beneficial to the city of Cleveland and his organization.
Irving isn’t a savior, but he can be a worthy heir to the generation of Russell Westbrooks and Rajon Rondos. Perhaps Cleveland truly hit the lottery and found itself an MVP, a Derrick Rose(notes), a Chris Paul. For now, Irving’s body of work is too limited to prematurely cast him in those molds, but make no mistake: He’s a godsend in a draft with so few difference makers.
The Cavaliers need to be careful that they don’t overplay him as a savior to sell tickets and create unrealistic expectations. He’s his own man, though. An agent who recruited Irving marveled to his family that they could’ve made a lot of money in the college recruiting and agent processes, but never let it happen. Every big-time college coach and agent you talk to made something clear: Unlike many elite prospects and those surrounding them, the Irvings couldn’t be bought.
A friend of a friend recommended Wechsler, and he sold the Irving family on two themes: Being shrewd with Kyrie’s career earnings, and becoming a beacon of community service and charity. When Wechsler had a chance to make a formal presentation, his pitch wasn’t centered on Irving’s sneaker deals, endorsements and the agent’s role as a 24-7 errand boy. He had Anthony Kennedy Shriver, founder of the globally renowned Best Buddies program, tell Kyrie about the power of charity and giving back.
In the end, the Cavaliers could walk out of the June draft with Irving and an elite power player with the fourth overall pick. GM Chris Grant grabbed the Los Angeles Clippers’ unprotected pick and Baron Davis’(notes) contract for Mo Williams(notes) in February, and the Clippers must be mortified to see it turn into the No. 1 overall. Irving and Blake Griffin(notes) could’ve been a Westbrook-Kevin Durant(notes) partnership, but that’s how it goes with the Clips.
Now, Irving gets the benefit of a coach, Byron Scott, whose inventory of knowledge includes a Showtime Lakers career as Magic Johnson’s running mate and a coaching run that includes Jason Kidd(notes) and Chris Paul under his watch.
Irving will find a city dying to embrace him, and he’ll make it easy. And once they hear that his family took a pass on LeBron and his wooing partners, they’ll be even more impressed. For everyone’s sake, it probably works out that Maverick Carter, Rich Paul and the rest of LeBron’s Akron buddies don’t come marching back into Quicken Loans Arena arm and arm with the future of the Cavaliers’ franchise. It would’ve been a wild scene full of acrimony and tension, but Kyrie Irving made it easy for everyone, and yes, that’s what great point guards are supposed to do.

Post NBA Lottery Edition, in Depth Analysis:2011 NBA Mock Draft

With the NBA Lottery come and gone it is now time to look forward to the NBA draft itself.  With the draft order set here is an in-depth look at the fourteen lottery picks.

I will look at both the strengths and weaknesses of each player followed by how they can help their teams.

The rest of the first round and the second round are coming soon.

Enjoy and don’t forget to comment if you disagree or think I missed someone.