Could Fredette Land With Indy?

Former BYU sharpshooter Jimmer Fredette worked out for the Pacers on Tuesday, according to ESPN.com’s Chad Ford, and did feel a little winded at times.

“This was my first workout so it was a little tiring,” Fredette said. “We went really hard for about an hour and 15 minutes straight through. That’s what happens’ you get tired when you do a workout like that.”

Other picks at the workout included Marcus Morris of Kansas, Tobias Harris of Tennessee, Duke’s Nolan Smith and Vernon Macklin of Florida, but it’s Fredette that makes the most sense of the group for Indiana, owners of the 15th overall pick.

The Pacers got a strong year out of rookie swingman Paul George, but he may be more suited for small forward than shooting guard. And while Fredette may be a shooting guard in a point guard’s body, shooting guards like Washington State’s Klay Thompson or Colorado’s Alec Burks may be off the board when it comes time for Indiana to make its selection. That’s what makes Fredette such an interesting prospect for the Pacers.

It also helped that Fredette displayed more than just shooting ability at the workout.

“You’re worried about his shot, but he keeps you on your toes because he can keep it on the ground just as well,” Smith said.

“I thought I did pretty well,” Fredette said. “I thought I tested well athletically.”

If that’s the case, team president Larry Bird might jump at the chance to take Fredette and improve the Pacers’ 35.4% mark from 3-point range.

{AUTHOR_BOX}Brewer Enjoys the Ride

The first 56 games of Corey Brewer’s season were as uneventful as his first three seasons with the Timberwolves; but Minnesota was only 13-43 in late February, so, naturally, GM David Kahn was eager to make some moves.

The Knicks, who had coveted Carmelo Anthony since the beginning of the season, were also making trade winds, but weren’t necessarily targeting Brewer when they acquired him in a three-team at the deadline. New York wanted Melo, and even though the team desperately needed a solid perimeter defender like Brewer, the 6-8 swingman was released shortly after the trade.

But by signing a multi-year deal in Dallas for a portion of the mid-level exception, Brewer has officially climbed up the NBA in the course of one year. He averaged only 11.4 MPG for the Mavericks over 13 regular season games—and that figure only went down in the playoffs—but when HOOPSWORLD’s Steve Kyler caught up with him at the shootaround before tonight’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Brewer said he had no regrets.

“I’m on an unbelievable ride,” he said. “I go from starting my year in Minnesota, struggling a little bit. We had no chance of making the Finals or being in the playoffs, so it’s unbelievable.

“It’s kinda surreal right now,” he continued. “[I was] just like not thinking that I would make it here this year and tonight’s the Finals. I think it will probably hit me once we go out there and start playing. It’s going to be good.”

Brewer is still only 25 years old, and only a few years removed from back-to-back NCAA National Titles. He’s still skinny enough to resemble a college freshman, and, since he’s never been around so many established veterans, he’s taken the time to study their approach to the playoffs.

“Everybody handles it pretty well,” he said. ” We keep our heads. We have a lot of veteran guys, so they’ve been through this. J-Kidd, he’s been in the Finals before. Jason [Terry], Dirk [Nowitzki], they’ve all been in the Finals before, so you watch those guys and kind of see how they handle things, keep your head calm, collected about everything.”

Brewer didn’t make an appearance in the Western Conference Finals after the first game—and even that only lasted five minutes—so in order to make a contribution, he’s made strides to give the Mavericks’ primary rotation players a realistic practice environment. Brewer runs the HEAT plays, much like an NFL backup quarterback in the week before a game.

“In practice, [I] just to get the guys ready, get them in sets, do the little things,” he said. “I’m a young guy, so I can’t compare it to being one of the older guys. [I'm] just trying to help to assimilate those guys and if I do get a chance to play, [I will] bring a lot of energy.”

Playing isn’t out of the question for Brewer. He’s tall and fast enough to defend Dwyane Wade, LeBron James or Mike Miller, and he’s athletic enough to run the fast break with Kidd or J.J. Barea. Of course, even if that doesn’t happen, he still has a future with the team and remains grateful for the chance to be a part of the NBA Finals.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “It’s on another level. The Finals, it’s the pinnacle of basketball. This is the championship. We win four games, we’re World Champions. Just to think about it, it’s something you dream about when you’re a kid.”

Finals Go 3-D

The NBA’s publicists are great at tracking down bits of interesting information before important events such as the All-Star Game and NBA Finals. This year was no different, so let’s run down some of the more interesting facts and figures about the Mavericks-HEAT series:

• In addition to being televised in 215 countries and territories in 46 different languages, the event will also be broadcast by six networks in 3D. ESPN, Foxtel (Australia), BesTV (China), NTV (Turkey) and Sky 3D (UK) will give basketball fans the first glimpse of 3D Finals action.
• ABC will use 32 high-definition cameras during the series as well as six super slo-mo cameras and one skycam.
• For the fifth-consecutive year, ABC’s team of Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy will be calling the Finals.
• This year there are eight international players including HEAT centers Joel Anthony (Canada), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania) and Jamaal Magloire (Canada) as well as Mavericks such as J.J. Barea (Puerto Rico), Rodrigue Beaubois (France), Ian Mahinmi (France), Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) and Peja Stojakovic.

NBA Chats:  Stephen Litel will host his weekly NBA chat 30 minutes little earlier this week, so make sure to get your questions in early as his chat will get underway at 7:30pm EST. You can always the next chat here: Upcoming NBA Chats.