Jrue Holiday: Underrated?

[Built Ford Tough]

At 6’4 200 with a 6’7 wingspan, he has exceptional size for a point guard without sacrificing much athleticism. He’s one of the few true points who can defend both guard positions, and his defensive versatility allows the 76ers to let the 6’1 175 Lou Williams score without having to run the offense.

 

Despite turning 21 only two months ago, Holiday is the rare young point guard without a serious hole in his game. He has the size to defend his position and rebound; he can shoot from the perimeter (a 37.5% career three point-shooter), create his own shot off the dribble (taking 27% of his shots in the paint last season) and run a team (averaging 6.5 assists per 2.7 turnovers last season).

 

His scoring average, at only 14 a game, isn’t as high as some of the other 2009 draftees, but that’s more a function of his role with Philadelphia. A mid-first round pick on a team with established veterans, Holiday (with a usage rating of 20.8 last year) hasn’t had nearly the same offensive freedom as Evans (25.3 usage rating), Curry (24.4) or Jennings (25.5).

 

Indeed, before his break-out season last year, it’s possible his own team didn’t quite realize the talent they had on their hands. In a move that could haunt them for years, the 76ers, took Evan Turner at #2 in the 2010 draft over Greg Monroe, DeMarcus Cousins and Derrick Favors.

 

Not a particularly flashy player on a mediocre team, Holiday hasn’t gotten much national attention in his first two years in the NBA. But he’s already produced at a very high level for a 21-year old, now it’s just a question of good he ends up becoming.

 

http://basketball.realgm.com/article/215150/The_NBAs_Underrated_Jrue_Holiday

 

I do really like Holiday's game and think he is better than some of the more talked about point guards in the 2009 draft, such as Brandon Jennings and Ty Lawson. You really don't hear much about him despite the fact that he had a very good sophomore season last year putting up 14 ppg, 4 rpg, 6.5 apg and 1.5 spg on 44.6% shooting as most of the guard hype for that class consists around Evans, Curry, Rubio and Jennings with Lawson starting to creep into that class as well. Hell, even Darren Collison seems to get more publicity than Holiday has in their careers thus far and I think it is pretty obvious that Holiday is the better player both now and for the future.

 

Anyways, I just thought this was a pretty good article and agreed with many of the points that were made in it. I don't think that he is quite as good as the author things, at least as of yet, but I do think he has the potential to become one of the better point guards in the NBA and that if he does manage to reach his potential that he could conciveably become the best point guard in the 2009 draft class.

[?QuestionMark?]

Definately think he's underrated.

 

Going into the draft I thought he had more upside than any point guard (besides Rubio and Jennings) and would probably be the best defensive PG of the draft. What hurt his stock was Howland had him playing SG and he just looked disinterested all year at UCLA.

 

Physically he has all the tools to be a great two-way player. He's pretty solid in pretty much every aspect. Shooting was a big concern coming in but shooting is the easiest skill to learn and he is getting better. I would take him probably over half the starting PGs in the NBA.

[Phightins]

Sixer fans certainly don't underrate him. I am in love with the dude

Edited August 19, 2011 by Phightins

[Smitty]

Haha, I remember being pissed because we picked him over Lawson.

 

 

Definitely don't regret that pick now.

 

 

One of the better defenders in the league, imo.

[Nitro]

I love his defense and the kid has a lot of talent, although I do question if he can be an elite scorer or playmaker at the PG position. He is rather inefficient scoring the ball because he simply doesn't get to the line often enough, and I just don't think he has the court awareness and IQ to be an elite playmaker. So, I think he will end up more in the Chauncey Billups realm as opposed to the Nash/Williams/Paul realm when he's in his prime.

[Smitty]

I love his defense and the kid has a lot of talent, although I do question if he can be an elite scorer or playmaker at the PG position. He is rather inefficient scoring the ball because he simply doesn't get to the line often enough, and I just don't think he has the court awareness and IQ to be an elite playmaker. So, I think he will end up more in the Chauncey Billups realm as opposed to the Nash/Williams/Paul realm when he's in his prime.

 

I love Chauncey's game, so I'll def take that.

[Phightins]

I love his defense and the kid has a lot of talent, although I do question if he can be an elite scorer or playmaker at the PG position. He is rather inefficient scoring the ball because he simply doesn't get to the line often enough, and I just don't think he has the court awareness and IQ to be an elite playmaker. So, I think he will end up more in the Chauncey Billups realm as opposed to the Nash/Williams/Paul realm when he's in his prime.

 

This is pretty much spot-on analysis IMO.

 

And I agree with Smitty also.

[Built Ford Tough]

I love his defense and the kid has a lot of talent, although I do question if he can be an elite scorer or playmaker at the PG position. He is rather inefficient scoring the ball because he simply doesn't get to the line often enough, and I just don't think he has the court awareness and IQ to be an elite playmaker. So, I think he will end up more in the Chauncey Billups realm as opposed to the Nash/Williams/Paul realm when he's in his prime.

 

I agree with you that he will never be a playmaker like a Nash, Paul, Williams, Kidd etc... but I do think that he has more potential as a playmaker than Billups ever was, but I also think that Billups was never much of a playmaker anyways. He did a solid job of running an offense and making good decisions with the ball (although even then I tend to think he was a bit overrated as a floor general as well due to his tendancy to force up poor shots a bit too frequently), but as an actual playmaker he never really struck me as better than the average point guard. Even in his Detroit years where he averaged around 6.3 apg I think it was more due to him being in a perfect offense surrounded by the right personnel (like a pick and pop with Sheed or hitting Rip on curls and things like that) then him being that good of a playmaker.

 

I think that Jrue has more potential in that regard as Billups does. Other than the 05-06 season where Billups averaged 8.6 apg and an assist to bad pass ratio of around 7, a season in which I think we can all agree was a bit of an anomaly playmaking wise for him as he has always been more of a 5.5-6.5 apg type of player, Billups has consistently hovered right around the range where Holiday is currently at as just a 20 year old sophomore. What I mean by this is BIllups passing rating, 2005-06 season excluded, as been consistently around the 9-9.5 range, his assist to bad pass ratio has always been around the 4-4.5 range and his hands rating has consistently been around the 20-21 range. This during the time period where Detroit was always at the top of the East and making deep runs in the playoffs and Billups was in the prime of his career.

 

Compare that to Holiday this past season who put up a passing rating of 9.6, assist to bad pass ratio of 4.1and a hands rating of 20.5. I think it is definitely safe to assume that as Holiday continues to gain experience and grow as a player that he will become a better playmaker. I don't see why he won't be able to consistently be around the 8-9 apg mark during his prime years with a passing rating of around 11-13 and a hands rating of around 22-25 area. These aren't close to the Kidd/Nash levels of passing ratings of 15+ and hands ratings of 30+, but they are definitely above a Billups level of playmaking.

 

I do agree with you about him having an overall impact on a level similar to Billups, though. I just think that he will be a better playmaker than Billups ever was, but I don't believe that he will be the same scorer as Billups was, so in the long run those two will likely cancel each other out somewhat.