Over the course of Jimmer's rookie season, he did little to silence his critics. Jimmer struggled on both ends of the floor. He looked completely lost with the ball in his hand. There were questions of whether Jimmer could ever be developed into a point guard. Hell, there were questions of whether he could ever last in the NBA beyond his rookie contract. His rookie season was a disappointment, to say the least.

Those concerns were easy to dismiss, though. He'd had no training camp and no access to the team thanks to the lockout. His head coach was fired 7 games into his rookie season. The accelerated schedule of the lockout-shortened season meant he had less practice time. There were tons of perfectly reasonable excuses.

Jimmer still has issues. His defense is still a serious liability. And all of Jimmer's early success comes with the approval of the Small Sample Size Institute. Nonetheless, it's been a nice surprise.