It appears Jeremiah Fears is already planning on becoming a better three-point shooter to help make the New Orleans Pelicans' offense flow better in 2026-27.
Fears' rookie season was a massive success. Not only did he play all 82 games and make the All-Rookie Second Team, but one of his biggest question marks as a prospect wasn’t a problem. Coming into the 2025 draft cycle, arguably the biggest question surrounding Fears was his outside jumper after shooting 29.6 percent from three in his lone college season. For me, this was part of the reason I initially had such a poor reaction to New Orleans selecting him at No. 7, but early into his rookie season he changed that.
Fears shot 33.0 percent from three on 3.7 attempts per game and showed way more early positives as a shooter than many evaluators expected. Given the concerns with the Pelicans' spacing going into next year, it would be great for Fears to continue to trend upward as a shooter, and it appears that's his plan.
“[I'll] just continue to take more threes and open up the floor a lot a lot more and open up attacks and spacing for my teammates... They going to have to kind of get to me and it's going to open up the paint for Z, open up the paint for Murph..." Fears said at Pelicans’ media day.
Fears isn't your average young player
Given the Pelicans finished with the fifth-fewest total threes made last season and neglected adding any positive floor spacing this past season, a step from Fears would be huge. To me, the encouraging portion of his quote isn’t that Fears was simply working on his jumper, but the understanding that he needs to shoot more threes. Sure, by the numbers it would be nice if he maintained a 3.7 threes-attempted-per-game clip and shot 37-38 percent. But there’s way more value in him shooting slightly better than he did last season from deep while getting more attempts up.
The expectation shouldn’t be that Fears is going to come in and hit at a 40 percent clip on Stephen Curry-type attempts. However, if he can continue to grow into a more willing outside shooter who can hit threes with ease when he’s left open, then the team's spacing is going to improve.
He mentioned opening up the floor and clearing out space for Zion Williamson and other players to get downhill and attack the rim. Again, that approach is expected to be a main source of scoring for this team next season, and Fears' improved outside shooting could help make that part of their offense elite.
Fears also touched on how no one can guard him off the dribble and how he can get downhill whenever he wants. With an outside shot, Fears can draw the defense out more and allow him to blow by defenders even more with his speedy first step on the perimeter.
If there’s one thing I can say that seriously has impressed me since Fears arrived in New Orleans, it’s his awareness and the drive to get better not just to help himself but his team. Given the way the Pelicans are constructed going into next season, they’ll need spacing boosts wherever they can get them. Fears being accountable and taking initiative to improve his outside shot to help the team's offense flow better isn’t something that’s too common from a player going into year two.
Then again, Jeremiah Fears is far from a common year-two player.
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