Jerime Anderson

Joseph Treutlein

One of many talented freshman on UCLA’s roster this past season, Jerime Anderson was limited to primarily garbage minutes over the course of the season due to a playing time crunch, as evidenced by his underwhelming stat line. This season, with Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday off to the NBA, Anderson will have every opportunity to show his value, and there are many reasons to be encouraged for how he will.

Standing 6’3, Anderson has great size and good length for the point guard position, though he’s not quite ideal physically, having a slight frame and lacking a lot of strength at this point in his development. Athletically, Anderson doesn’t have a blazing first step, relying more on crafty change of pace moves to get past his man, however he is pretty explosive for his size vertically, showing the ability to get up in the lane. It’ll be interesting to see how Anderson responds from a full offseason of strength training at UCLA, as it could potentially affect his game in numerous positive ways.

Looking at Anderson’s game, it’s hard to come to many definitive conclusions based off his limited playing time, often coming when UCLA already had a convincing lead, but a few things can be taken away. Anderson is a steady floor general who runs his team’s offense well, not over-dribbling, moving well without the ball, maintaining good spacing, and distributing the ball among his teammates. He didn’t show much in terms of ability to create off the dribble for others in the lane, however it’s something we’d seen from him in high school and is something to look out for as he grows into his larger role this year.

As a scorer, Anderson shows potential in a few areas, however he’s very inefficient and inconsistent at this stage, in part stemming from his underdeveloped body. As a jump shooter, Anderson can look good when shooting in rhythm, showing some three-point range, however oftentimes he seems to overcompensate for his lack of strength by throwing his body into his shot, throwing off his touch and accuracy greatly. Developing better base strength so he can more consistently and effortlessly use his shooting motion from deep will go a long way in developing his outside shot.

In terms of attacking the basket, Anderson shows a good dribble with both hands and has a very good command of hesitation dribbles, compensating for his lack of breakaway speed by throwing defenders off balance and picking his spots well. In the lane, he shows very good creative potential, being able to finish with an array of floaters and finger rolls with either hand, however he’s not a good finisher in the lane overall, lacking the ability to get through contact and having a very unreliable pull-up jumper in the lane.

While Anderson does have good moments with his dribble and can make things happen in the lane, he seems to have a lot of trouble dealing with pressure defense in both the halfcourt and fullcourt, often exposing his dribble to defenders, leading to quite a few steals far away from the basket. Being able to better handle these type of situations will be crucial to his success this season, as it’s something teams will catch onto and abuse if he doesn’t fix it.

Defensively, Anderson shows a very strong stance and puts in consistently high effort both on and off the ball, however his lateral quickness is a liability against point guards, even though he somewhat compensates for it with his size and fundamentals. Off the ball, Anderson is in constant chase and doesn’t lose his man due to lack of awareness, however he can have trouble getting around screens given his lack of strength. Projecting to the NBA, Anderson’s lateral quickness will be a much bigger concern, especially with some of the game’s quicker point guards.

Looking forward, Anderson is still a ways away from thinking about the NBA, but there is much to be optimistic about based on the limited things we saw from him as a freshman. With the point guard position wide open for UCLA, Anderson will have many opportunities to grow as a player this season, and in watching him you get the feeling that with some more strength, a tweak here, and a tweak there, things could quickly fall into place for the young floor general. Anderson could stand to improve in every single facet of the game, but the little flashes he’s shown have been promising.

Anderson has a long way to go physically, but appears to be tailor-made for the UCLA system that he’ll play in next season. The point guard had a big role in sparking the US Team on the defensive end early in the game, creating a handful of steals and taking one of them coast to coast for an emphatic dunk. He also displays very good court vision off the dribble, and can really make things happen on drives to the hoop.

As previously stated, Anderson must do some work physically before he can be considered NBA ready. He stands at just around six feet tall with a skinny frame weighing in around 165 pounds. Though he made a nice mid-range jumper off the dribble in the game, it was hard to really get a feel for his shooting ability throughout the week.

Considering his defense and play-making abilities, Anderson will be a very interesting player to watch at UCLA, although his lack of size is a hindrance. He must improve his body and show some shooting ability before solidifying himself as an NBA prospect, but he’s the type of player who will make things happen while on the court for the Bruins.

As steady and mature a point guard as you'll find at the high school level, Jerime Anderson is a player that really grows on you the more you see him. A true playmaker who is just as comfortable walking the ball up the floor as he is pushing the tempo, Anderson has a great demeanor on the floor and is more than happy making everyone around him better. Showing solid ball-handling skills with either hand, and very good court vision both off the dribble as well as setting players up from the perimeter, Anderson has good size, nice strength, and the basketball IQ college coaches crave from the point guard position. An excellent defender (we'd expect nothing less from a Ben Howland commit), he really does a good job containing his matchup and playing solid pressure defense. Not a flashy player and certainly not the quickest point around, Anderson looks like a very productive 3-4 year college player at this point. His scoring tools need to improve, particularly his jumper which isn't steady enough quite yet.