Jeremiah Fears

Jeremiah Fears is an elite ball handler and gifted scorer, who still leaves some real questions about his efficiency and ability to defend at the next level.

Offense

Jeremiah Fears is a shifty, skilled guard who plays with extreme confidence.  Fears possesses possibly the best handles in this draft class.  He is able to string together a number of moves from crossovers to hesitations to spins to hostage dribbles and step backs.  He even has a nice behind the back dribble he busts out at times.  Fears can absolutely leave players on skates.  And impressively, he really seems purposeful with how he uses moves, fakes, and drives and can absolutely set up a player to make a single misstep and then just go. Fears does a great job varying his pace and throwing in all sorts of jabs, pumps, and head nods before the dribble and various nods and hesitations mid-drive to make defenders adjust and give him an angle or seam to burst down.

Ironically, while Fears is extremely fast in the open court, he’s not as much of a pure burner as I would have thought in the halfcourt and there were fewer examples than I expected of him just turning on the jets and beating even some bigger guards and wings with a quick first step.  Thought to be clear, he has very good open court speed and is fast with his dribble move execution, but just doesn’t run past players in the half court favoring to set them up with dribble-moves and craftiness.

However, Fears is also a natural floor general who constantly communicates on offense and organizes his teammates. Though one minor flag is that he does seem most comfortable with the ball in his hands, so it will be worth monitoring how he adjusts if asked to be a secondary creator. He doesn’t move much without the ball and primarily relocates to set up for deep threes or come towards the ball to get it up high and reset the offense.

For a smaller guard, Fears is very physical and not afraid to drive into the body of defenders and create contact to draw fouls or knock them back slightly to get an angle to score inside.  However, despite this physicality, he can struggle inside.  While Fears is a good athlete in space, he’s more limited in traffic. His size and lack of overall explosiveness (in congestion) can lead to some real struggles scoring inside.  He doesn’t have great hang time.  He does have pretty good touch and uses his long arms effectively.  But he also has fairly narrow shoulders and a leaner frame and can’t really hold defenders off or create an angle like some other guards.  This inability to shield the ball really hurts his inside game.  Fears ends up showing the ball a lot which lets big men reach over and block his shot or force him to put up a rushed or wilder shot.  And while he’s got some bend and isn’t stiff, he is not so fluid or bendy to make up for some of these other shortcomings.  And compounding this, his touch around the hoop is good but not great.  Fears does show the makings of a runner that could help alleviate some of the pressure to get all the way inside.    

Overall, Fears is a good outside shooter when he can step in and fire in rhythm.  He is certainly confident in his shot (maybe more than he should be) and takes a lot of much harder three point shots which can skew his shooting percentage compared to some of his more role playing peers.  Fears has at least some ability to hit step backs, side steps, or shots on the move, but the results are not fully there yet.  Has a pretty quick release and his form looks good at times. But at others can also be a bit rigid or be inconsistent (can almost look like a push shot at times), especially on his rushed or higher degree of difficulty threes.  However, his form is far from broken so feels like this should improve in the NBA, especially if his usage and the degree of difficulty of his shots drops.

One area I would have liked to see him perform better is his midrange shooting.  With his speed and inside struggles, he’d benefit immensely from being able to pull the ole Isaiah Thomas move of driving hard to the basket, stopping on a dime, and splashing through a 15 footer.  While he hit some, he doesn’t have that ability to stop on a dime and get his balance quickly, which gives defenders an opportunity to gather and contest.  Given his handles and step back, that “stop on a dime” ability isn’t the only path to a dominant midrange game, but it will help him to develop a go-to here.

As a passer, Fears shows real promise. He can deliver every type of pass; cross-court lasers, no-looks, lobs, bounce passes, live-dribble passes, and quick skip passes. His vision is good, and he reads double teams well, often finding open teammates on the perimeter or hitting the roll man. However, his accuracy can be inconsistent and at times he will miss his teammate’s shooting pocket, throw passes too low or wide, and struggle to hit cutters in stride. These issues are amplified under pressure, especially when his size limits his passing angles.

Turnovers are a concern, though more due to execution than decision-making. Most of his miscues fall into three categories; ball-handling losses in traffic, poorly placed passes, and offensive fouls or travels stemming from those aggressive shoulder bumps used to create space. His turnover rate improved as the season went on though, which suggests growth that he hopefully continues at the next level.

Defense

Fears is a tough, engaged defender who gives strong effort, even if he has some physical limitations. He has good lateral speed and changes direction decently both east to west and north to south.  He’s not elite in this regard, but he is quick enough to recover and stay in the play or contest a step back or fade away after the offensive player makes a hard drive or gets him to step back on a jab step or other fake. 

While Fears is not overly strong with his frame and weight, he plays tough which prevents him from being bullied particularly by other guards and slightly bigger wings.  He will stand strong and absorb contact. However, he has a pretty small frame and narrow shoulders, making it easy for offensive player to get their shoulders outside of his his body and drive by him, especially if they get a step on him.  A number of possessions he seems to play some good initial defense, but as a player gets into the key they can get their shoulders and upper body outside of his shoulders and get a good angle for a lay in.  Or if they get Fears a step behind and on their hip, they can easily squeeze around him. 

When beaten, Fears does have good recovery speed and takes good angles. He has strong recovery ability and takes smart angles to stay in plays, contesting pull-ups and step-backs even when momentarily beaten. He is also decently springy, so while he is a bit limited in how much he can really contest inside (especially from behind), he will at least make things a bit more difficult and has even blocked a few shots in recovery.  Another issue is that because Fears is smaller, while he can absorb contact, he often seems to try to anticipate it, and push back against bigger guards and wings.  This can make him susceptible to countermoves, such as a spin moves the other direction, while he is puffing his chest and bracing for contact. 

Additionally, Fears’ ability to fight through screens is solid, thanks to his quickness and anticipation. He’s willing to navigate contact, though his size can still be a limiting factor. Occasionally, he’ll try to cheat under a screen or lean into contact too early, leaving him vulnerable to counters or rejecting screens.

All of this is to say, he fights hard and has some decent perimeter and recovery skills, but ultimately has some physical limitations that really do limit his defensive upside.  Especially as he doesn’t have an overly large frame and so his overall growth and ability to correct some of these issues maybe limited.

Fears is active and disruptive both on and off the ball. He swipes frequently, digs aggressively, and jumps into passing lanes. While this helps generate steals and deflections, it also leads to occasional overhelping and missed assignments. That said, his defensive instincts are generally solid for a freshman guard. He rotates effectively, reads offensive actions, and communicates well through screens and switches.  This is one area his speed really impacts the game.  It helps him in rotations, as he is a blur and can be all over the court.  There are plays he goes from his man, to tagging a big man, rotating out, and then cheating down to grab a steal.

He also shows excellent reaction time, as he can flash into passing lanes, bait passes like a defensive back, and even intercept lobs or high entry passes. He has great timing and quick-twitch reflexes, which allow him to surprise offensive players with steals and tips. He gets a surprising number of deflections by crowding ball-handlers and disrupting their rhythm.

While Fears rotates well enough, his closeouts are inconsistent. At times, he offers a strong contest, using his speed and hops to challenge shots. Other times, he appears to go through the motions, either putting up a weak hand or running past the shooter without a meaningful challenge. His small stature limits his effectiveness as a shot deterrent at the rim or in the paint. Against bigger players on switches or in transition, he struggles to offer any resistance.

Still, his hustle stands out. Fears consistently makes second efforts, rotates with urgency, and covers a ton of ground on defense. He has a knack for flying around to tag rollers, contest on the perimeter, and poke the ball loose when least expected. His energy and anticipation help paper over some of his physical limitations.  Though he is likely going to have to work hard to be even an average defender at the next level and will need to provide a lot of value with his offensive abiliity.