The following is part of Raptors Republic’s series of pieces previewing the 2025 NBA draft. You can find all the pieces in the series here.
Turning 19 just a week before the NBA season gets underway, Fears is one of the youngest and most dynamic prospects in the draft. He showcases a set of skills that are advanced well beyond his age, but he has a lot of deficiencies to iron out before he can blossom into a star. Fears would be a home run pick at 9th overall, though the stars may need to align in the Raptors’ favour in order for him to be available at their selection.
Jeremiah Fears – 6’3 (6’4?) Point Guard – University of Oklahoma – Age: 18
The Offence
Elite first step, handle, and rim pressure are skills that don’t come around that often, and are what make Fears a valuable prospect. He’s excellent at controlling the ball and can start-stop or shift speeds in a similar fashion to prior classes’ dynamic shot creating guards.
Fears isn’t particularly explosive as a jumper, and his touch around the rim leaves something to be desired, though he’s quite excellent at using his shiftiness to get into the paint and his body control works well enough to wear he can contort around defenders or absorb contact with ease.
4.1 assists to 3.4 turnovers is rather uninspiring for a lead guard. He’s not a pass-first player, and he needs to get better at looking for his teammates first if he doesn’t have a good avenue for a shot himself, as many of Fears’ assists came as a result of bailing himself out rather than using his playmaking vision. That said, he’s had moments of brilliance as a passer including a 10 assist game against Mississippi State in February. He’s a great playmaker in transition as well in the pick and roll – so he’ll have an effective role as a lead guard in those moments. The bag runs deep, but he has to hone his passing and get his turnovers under control if he wants to stick around.
I’ve mentioned Fears’ ability to get into the paint at will due to his shiftiness and ball control — fantastic skill to have — except for when he gets ahead of himself and starts playing too fast or without thinking, which leads to some poorly timed shots at the rim or just outright live ball turnovers.
Fears’ shot is something that should come along, but it’s hard to say whether or not it will at this point. He takes NBA-range threes with James Harden level confidence, they just don’t land that often. The best word to describe him is streaky.
In general, the foundation that Fears is coming in with is something that is incredibly rare for 18 year old guards. He just has to improve his touch around the rim and refine his jumper in order for him to maximize those skills effectively. He can get anywhere he wants on the basketball court with ease, but his life is going to be tough until he learns how to put the ball in the basket efficiently. How Fears develops as a decision maker is going to make or break his career.
The Defence
Fears is a solid athlete with quick hands, his problem is that he’s not very strong and has a higher centre of gravity than you would like. On the defensive end, I could easily see this being a problem in the NBA as he’s going to be targeted by bigger guards. Luckily, he’s not so undersized to a point where it will be a problem, and he can continue to get stronger which should allow him to become at least an average defender and stay on the floor.
The Fit
RIM PRESSURE! Good lord, the Raptors need effective rim pressure. Fears is arguably the best at this one skill in the entire class thanks to his blend of speed and control of the ball. Fears is by no means a finished product, but it can be assumed that he would be one of the first guards off the bench and utilized in a way that would help provide scoring and rim pressure for the second unit. Down the line, I really like his fit with guys like Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram in the starting unit, just due to his ability to collapse defences on his drives to the paint. Continuing to develop that on an upward trend as well as improving his playmaking will allow for some easy kick-outs to Ingram or Dick — or open looks to a cutting Barnes.
Guards who can create shots, pressure the rim, and draw fouls are incredibly valuable – look at the guy who just won the Finals MVP for the Thunder, you may have heard of him, Shai something. He’s pretty good at that kind of stuff.
The Conclusion
Is he perfect? No. Do I expect there to be growing pains? Absolutely yes, I think he very realistically might have a terrible rookie year… but the payoff of a finished product Jeremiah Fears with improved decision making and a honed jumper just gives me a vision of a superstar guard in my head that I can’t shake.
Expected pick range: 5-10, with 5-8 being where most of the current smoke is. Teams like him a lot, and it’s easy to see why. That said, the draft can break in weird ways and players inexplicably fall well past their expected range all the time. Even if Fears is widely expected to go in the 5-8 range, 9 isn’t outside the realm of possibility. If Fears is available at 9, the Raptors should jump on him.
Brendan’s Big Board: Jeremiah Fears is the 6th best prospect in the class. Of the Raptors targets I’ve written about thus far in the draft cycle, he is the highest ranked and by far my first choice at the 9th pick. That said, he is also less likely to be available than other players that I have favourably ranked around this range, such as Derik Queen, Kasparas Jakucionis, and Thomas Sorber. I tend to be harsh on some of the more raw prospects, but if those raw prospects can show off a deep bag of advanced and hard to find skills at such a young age like Fears, then that’s always going to be a gamble worth taking. If the Raptors end up taking Fears, I’ll shed some tears.
