Draft roundup: Jimmer Fredette prefers Knicks to Jazz

The NBA draft countdown is underway and with the Utah Jazz holding two lottery picks and BYU's Jimmer Fredette remaining a major media magnet and fan favorite, locals interest might never have been higher. Fredette continues to be praised and criticized in the national media but it seems pretty clear the senior guard from BYU is one of the most talked about players in the field.

Dan Patrick interviewed Fredette Monday morning where he forced the New York native to admit he would slightly prefer to be a Knick, calling New York the 1A and the Jazz his 1B option.

The Knicks apparently are returning the Jimmer-love according toESPN's Chad Ford who says the orange and blue may be trying to move ahead of the Jazz's No. 12 pick to get him and several teams in spots just ahead of the Jazz are willing to deal. (Nobody has any team taking him as high as the Jazz No. 3 pick as some Dnews commenters are recommending.)

Much of Ford's content is only available to ESPN Insiders for a few dollars a month but today's Fredette content is free. He also lists the guard as 15th on his top 100 players.

Charlotte, with the No. 9 and 19 picks, is definitely not interested in Fredette. In a column, the well respected Scott Fowler explains that after drafting another successful college player that didn't translate well to the NBA, the Bobcats are nervous about Fredette.

Fowler says, "A Bobcats source indicated that although the team knows it needs outside shooting, it is lukewarm at best toward the idea of drafting Fredette."

The rest is well worth a read.

Cbssports.com senior writer Jeff Goodman also writes today that he has legitimate concerns about the Fredette's potential to guard, well, anybody at all. He says, "I'm not sure there's truly a guy in the NBA that Fredette can guard." But he claims he was once caught up in Jimmermania.

Matt Moore from the same website has a list of five players to be wary of drafting. Guess who made the list?

Gary Parrish, same site again, is confident Fredette will not fail in the NBA. "... the idea that Jimmer Fredette will be a bust is silly. He can create and shoot. He's tough. He's a gamer. His positives outweigh his negatives. And the franchise that recognizes that Thursday will benefit from it for years."

Read the rest right here.

USA Today has a similar story but it features Fredette's response to the question and another "expert" who believes the Suns will take him at No. 13 and doesn't think defense will be an issue.