Originally Posted by
Hadlowe
Hi, Npliam.
I disagree a little regarding athleticism and defense. In terms of the general populace, Jimmer is a great athlete. In terms of NBA point guards, he is below median. He is a better athlete than the old guys like Calderon and Jameer Nelson and some of the big points like Livingston or Greivis Vasquez, but not NBA point guards in general.
Sure, the differences are measured in fractions of seconds and milimeters, but at the NBA level of competition, it is what it is.
Defensively, he improved quite a bit last year working with Malone and Thibs on positioning, rotations and reads. His biggest problem on defense is that he is not nasty enough, doesn't foul hard enough. Since he was drafted, I wanted to see him play defense more like that other BYU alum, Danny Ainge did back in the day. Ainge was great at hitting bigs in the midsection with elbows as he fought through screens. I want to see more of that hard-nosed playbefore I give Jimmer credit for improved defense.