NBA Draft Mistake #13: Sacramento drafting Jimmer Fredette over Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Vucevic, and Jimmy Butler.
In the lead-up to the 2011 draft, Jimmer Fredette’s draft position became the subject of a lot of speculation. After all, he was arguably the most famous college player at the time after averaging nearly 29 points for BYU. Prior to being picked, he drew comparisons to Adam Morrison, another college player who put up big numbers but failed to translate them to the NBA. He was ultimately picked 11th and started his career with the Sacramento Kings.
Those comparisons proved fairly accurate; Fredette struggled to transition from being an elite scorer to playing backup point guard and lasted just three seasons with the Kings before they cut their losses after 171 games. He started just seven of those games, and his best year saw him score 7.9 points. His NBA career never got back on track, and Fredette ended up going overseas and playing in China.
There, he was able to regain some of the magic from his BYU days, just not with Sacramento. Worse yet, he was taken one spot ahead of Klay Thompson. How different would NBA history be had the Kings taken Thompson over Fredette? They also missed Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Vucevic, and Jimmy Butler. To be fair, they did draft Isaiah Thomas, only to later trade him before he became an All-Star. 2011 wasn’t the Kings’ year.