The Chicago Bulls refuse to die, but don’t have the pieces to succeed. With news breaking that the Chinese Basketball Association MVP, Jimmer Fredette, is opening conversations with teams in the NBA for a deal beginning this month, when the Chinese season ends, it’s time to think about how this might work for Chicago.
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Jimmer Fredette. The one and only Brigham Young University star hooper.
After a stellar collegiate career, Fredette broke into the NBA as the 10th overall pick in the 2011 draft, selected by the Milwaukee Bucks. As with most drafts, a successful star in the college ranks was selected far ahead of many other players who far outshined him when it was time to play in the big league.
Among the players selected behind Fredette that year was Chicago’s own Jimmy Butler.
Fredette has played a total of 235 NBA games since 2011, most recently he played six games in the 2015-16 season, split between the New Orleans Pelicans (four games) and New York Knicks (two games). His career numbers are extremely pedestrian during that stretch, but put up solid shooting numbers during that time, a career 38.1 percent 3-point shooter.
Sources: China MVP, Jimmer Fredette, playing for Shanghai in playoffs, starting to engage NBA teams on March return. He's scored 37.5 PPG.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 1, 2017
Well, here we go.
Fredette is having himself a fantastic season in China. In 38 games for the Shanghai Sharks, he averaged 37.4 points on 27.4 attempts per game in 39.9 minutes. While they still have a game on the schedule for March 3rd, Jimmer has already been named the CBA MVP. Fun fact: he’s the first CBA MVP to play for the Sharks since a guy named Yao Ming.
Jimmer is shooting 47.7 percent from the field and 40.4 percent from 3-point range. There are other players that are putting up strong numbers in China. In fact, Errick McCollum has taken over the scoring title lead by one-tenth of a point, averaging 37.5 per game. However, McCollum doesn’t have the collegiate or professional pedigree and reputation that Fredette has carried with him since he put on a BYU jersey.
A lot of teams are going to be looking for scoring help as we get to the crunch, barely six weeks remain in the regular season before the playoffs. If there is a time to add a player who can integrate and impact, it is right now. Kevin Durant and Kyle Lowry are set to miss the rest of the regular season for their teams and the Cavaliers have been furiously piecing together the ultimate 2009 team from the 2017 spare parts pile.
And then there’s the Bulls. A team that refuses to drop out of the playoff race despite team turmoil and a vicious series of trade deadline rumors. They don’t have any of the pieces they need, and yet they won’t go away.
Entering Wednesday’s games, the Bulls are right on the heels of the Indiana Pacers for the sixth-seed in the Eastern Conference and clinging to a slim lead over the eighth-seeded Detroit Pistons with the Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks still in pursuit of those last three spots. Everything is tightening up in the playoff race.
Chicago has a need. They’ve struggled to find shooters. Mike Dunleavy wasn’t that guy. Doug McDermott couldn’t cut it and has been given a fresh start elsewhere. They’ve still got some unproven options – Denzel Valentine, Bobby Portis, Jerian Grant – and they’ve got some major inconsistencies – Nikola Mirotic, anyone?
The Bulls were rumored to be making some waiver moves, including setting at least one of their myriad point guards free. The leading candidate for that move appeared to be Michael Carter-Williams, but they’ve also got Isaiah Canaan stapled to the bench and two new players, brought over in the Cameron Payne-Taj Gibson trade, Joffrey Lauvergne and Anthony Morrow, who have played about three minutes each at the end of a blowout loss at the hands of the Denver Nuggets.
They’ll have to let someone go if they want to add anybody, but Fredette might be a good move.
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Jimmer’s volume shooting and scoring, combined with a 3-point shooting percentage above 40 percent over his 38 games with Shanghai this season, could provide a huge shot in the arm for a Chicago team that has been dead last in the league in 3-point shooting for quite some time. If the Bulls aren’t dropping out of the playoff race, it’s time to consider their shooting and scoring options. There’s going to be known commodity available and they must pursue it.
Speaking of a known commodity, Fredette has played for Chicago before. He played eight games with the Bulls back in the 2013-14 season. The Forman Fraternity is strong and Jimmer fits the Gar Forman Model perfectly: A highly-regarded college standout that hasn’t shown anything that indicates he can succeed at a high level in the NBA.
Maybe his time in China has helped Fredette turn the corner. Even if it hasn’t, he’s shown the ability to sustain over a small sample size of games. Chicago has just 22 games left in the regular season and who knows where they go from there. Jimmer has played well for 38 games in China, he would only need to repeat that performance for about half that amount of time with the Bulls.
Plus, having Jimmer will make Forman feel better about having to wait until June to draft Grayson Allen.