Spurs look for a needed shooter, sign Jimmer Fredette to training camp deal
The San Antonio Spurs’ summer has been an unqualified success. A bona fide championship contender has only become stronger with the acquisitions of LaMarcus Aldridge and David West, and only a fool would argue otherwise.
However, assembling what looks like the NBA’s best frontcourt required San Antonio to cut ties with several key backcourt reserves, including sharpshooter Marco Belinelli and improving backup guard Cory Joseph. While Tony Parker, Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, and Patty Mills provide a solid core, the Spurs are still in need of another shooter and further depth on the perimeter.
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The Spurs’ search has now brought them to a familiar face. Jimmer Fredette, most recently an end-of-bench guard for the New Orleans Pelicans, will join the club on a training camp deal with an opportunity to claim the 15th and final roster spot. ESPN’s Marc Stein first reported the agreement, and Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed and added this bit of news:
Fredette also confirmed the deal with this tweet:
It is likely that this story would not appear on our blog if not for Fredette’s leading role in “Jimmermania,” the media and fan fervor that followed him as a junior and senior at Brigham Young University. Unfortunately for Jimmer, his ball-dominant, free-shooting style has not translated to the NBA in any form. Since the Sacramento Kings selected him with the 10th pick in the 2011 draft (one spot ahead of Klay Thompson), Fredette has shot just 41.2 percent from the field over 229 games with three teams. His career hit a new low in 2014-15 with the Pelicans when he made only nine of 48 three-point attempts (or 18.8 percent) in just 509 minutes in 50 games. Add in his very poor defense and it’s hard to see how we will be able to contribute major minutes to a title contender despite Gregg Popovich’s history of developing castoffs into quality players.
Although there’s no sense in dismissing Fredette entirely, his past four years perhaps make it more sensible to analyze his acquisition as a symptom of the Spurs’ situation rather than as its cure. First, it’s important to admit that San Antonio’s guards aren’t necessarily bad — they’re just not up to the level of an elite frontcourt that now features Aldridge, Kawhi Leonard, and Tim Duncan as starters with plenty of capable bench players to fill in. Tony Parker is still quite good, if also a little more of an injury concern at 33 years old; Green is one of the league’s best 3-and-D wings; Mills was one of the team’s most consistent players in their fantastic playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers; and Ginobili is obviously diminished but very good for a backup.
The problem is that three members of that quartet present significant risks. There is no clear replacement for Parker if he struggles with another injury, Mills is promising but not necessarily ready to take on a bigger minutes and/or scoring burden, and Ginobili has shot worse than 40 percent from the field in two of the last three postseasons. Plus, each player will now asked to do more with the elite-shooting Belinelli off the roster, but only Mills and Green rate as excellent outside threats. The interior presences of Aldridge and Duncan should allow shooters more open looks, but they will still need to convert them. It’s no wonder that the Spurs are going after Fredette, because he could fill the gap left by Belinelli in a best-case scenario. They will need more shooting to match up with perimeter-oriented squads like the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets.
None of these issues present a serious challenge to San Antonio’s status as one of the league’s top few title contenders, but they do serve as a reminder that the Spurs’ tremendous summer has nevertheless left them with some questions to answer. There are many reasons to think that the players on hand and the NBA’s most respected coaching staff can make it work. But the work still needs to be done.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
