Kobblehead wrote:What's wrong with what he said about our PG situation? When has Holiday put together a full game of running the offense and impacting the game?
- He's been a situational defender at times.
- He's gotten to the rim off the dribble at times.
- He's hit a few three pointers off assisted attempts.
- He's played off the ball at times.
All of this usually goes on throughout a game. He's never settled into running the offense for a full 48 minutes. And some games, he isn't effective in doing anything other than defending. I need to see more on a nightly basis before I can have faith in Jrue Holiday being a dependable QB for the offense.
When? When? Oh, I don't know the last two months of the season! Here's one game that everyone would like to forget. Milwaukee(at the Bradley Center, BTW before Bogut injury). We blew out that game, wanna know why? Jrue Holiday completely stymied Brandon Jennings on BOTH ends of the floor. With his size and quickness, Jrue prevented Brandon from running out on the break(or getting inside the paint). And on the other end, Jrue Holiday punished Jennings pushing the ball against the 6'0 guard and using his size, his quickness and his shot.
I also recall the forementioned Atlanta game. Situational Defender? Situational Defender? A situational defender does NOT get seven steals in a game, I can guarantee you.
And it's not like Allen Iverson where Jrue "plays" the passing lanes(ie: sags off his man). On the contrary, Jrue Holiday has learned to use his body and puts pressure on the offense.
A situational defender is NOT put on Kobe Bryant(certainly not when we have the 'great' Andre Iguodala). Indeed, the reason the Lakers pulled away at the end was because EFJ sat Holiday down and Kobe got hot. Then, it's too late to contain Kobe.
Last but not least, we have to take EFJ into very large consideration in regards to Holiday's development. Let's not forget that EFJ had Willie Green and Royal Ivey playing "ahead" of Jrue Holiday. If it weren't for that 1 1/2-2 months of foolishness, Holiday could very well have landed on an all-rookie team.
Let's also remember EFJ ran the "Princeton" Offense, though I don't venture it was anything like I seen from Rick Adelman's Kings/Rockets. Case in point: Remember when Elton Brand would recieve the ball at the top of the perimeter!? A 15-18 foot jump shooter got the ball 26 feet out!
You can't possibly judge Jrue Holiday as an "off the ball player", infact it was one of his greatest questionmarks heading into the draft!
Infact, you should see this as an improvement. Before Holiday was/is a game-changer with the ball in his hands. Which we didn't see alot but if you paid attention, we saw Jrue Holiday taking over games.
It first started against Orlando, I remember TGP and I having a big argument and I told him "This ain't a 1 game rookie fluke. This is a very good player". I told him how hard Jrue was taking the ball to the cup. How good of a shooter he is, how poised he is. Those were the markings of a great player.
Jrue Holiday and Thaddeus Young have potential to be great players, and both have developed incredibly well. Young had a "set-back" year, but he still shot 47% from the field.
So while everyone might say "hold on a minute". I say: Let them fly. Let these young kids fly and don't let them go. They are potentially our first and second options of the future.