Jimmer Fredette: ‘I Was Definitely Probably a Little Bit Ahead of My Time’ in NBA | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Former BYU superstar Jimmer Fredette arrived in the NBA in 2011 with immense hype after a fantastic collegiate career, but his days in The Association did not lead to great success on the court.

In an interview with Sam Yip of HoopsHype, Fredette was asked if he ever imagined how different his career would have been if he started his pro days in this current NBA era, which features more positionless basketball and more three-point attempts than ever before.

“Of course you think about it, right?” Fredette said.

“Like, I mean there’s no way that you don’t think about it. Obviously, it does fit my game better now than it did before. It’s more positionless basketball. When I came out it was like, is he a one or is he a two? What’s the deal? Who’s he gonna guard? Now it’s like if you can play, you can play and if you can shoot, you’re an asset.

“So that’s something that’s important in today’s day and age. So I was definitely probably a little bit ahead of my time as far as that’s concerned. But it is what it is and right now I’m in a good spot and using my talents and been able to do it all over the place.”

Fredette dominated at BYU, notably averaging 28.9 points per game during his senior year (2010-2011). He also finished his collegiate career shooting 39.4 percent from three-point range and made 124 threes alone during his senior year.

The first-team All-American went 10th overall in the 2011 NBA draft to the Milwaukee Bucks, who traded Fredette to the Sacramento Kings.

Unfortunately, Fredette’s NBA career never took off. He bounced around the league with five teams over six seasons (2011-2016, 2018-2019), averaging 6.0 points on 40.9 percent shooting and 1.4 assists in 13.3 minutes per game.

Fredette did find great success in China with the CBA’s Shanghai Sharks, averaging over 37 points per game from 2016-2019.

It’s certainly possible that Fredette would have found a much more stable and longer-term home in the NBA should he have entered the league a decade later, especially given his penchant for shooting threes.

We’ll never find out how that would have turned out, but Fredette still made a great impact on the game in college and played professionally for over a decade, which is an incredible feat no matter the expectations.