doclinkin wrote:I'm not sure why we are dismissing Holiday as a starting PG
As I have said in the Rui thread and the draft thread, in young players you look for a few good games where they show flashes, then you hope they learn from them and begin to string a few of them together. Can they do the thing, and can they do it consistently. Holiday has a few of these games under his belt:
These are not fluke games. These are within his skillset. A good coach will see what a player does well and tweak things to feature them. Holiday, Beal, Kispert, Bertans, Mathews, all shoot well coming off screens and in motion. Beal and Holiday both can penetrate coming off screens, Beal to finish and collect the foul, Holiday to kick to the open man. Last season we had players standing around doing nothing but wait for Russ to do something. That's not really going to accelerate their growth as players. But Wes apparently gameplanned the Gilbert Arenas offense under Eddie F Jordan. Any of these players would have worked well in that offense. Especially with Bertans and Kispert in the Antawn Jamison/Caron Butler roles. Beal as Arenas.
With success comes confidence as players get hot and allow open shots for the next guy. Players need to see they can do the thing then learn what it takes to do it consistently. But can Holiday do it?
This does not look like a player who is overmatched and lacking fundamental skills to succeed.
You got to figure coach Unseld had some say in whether to trade for Holiday vs picking a rookie. Since he had the responsibility for team defensive prep against teams, he knew the strengths of the player. I fully expect he not only gave the okay, but advocated for the team to pick him up. A coach needs a PG as an amplifier for his voice. Holiday comes from a family that knows the game inside out. I expect he will grow under the direct encouragement of a guy like Wes. And we will see more of the above, more often. Nate Bjorkgren was overmatched, apparently depressed, had lost control of the team. I expect that is not the best environment for growing a young player who had shown flashes up to that point.
Yeah he needs to get a bit stronger, and learn some of Brad's tricks for driving into contact to pick up the foul. But, I think there is a chance anyway that he can play as a frontline point, depending on the team and scheme and coaching he is working with.
My college chemistry professor used to love to say: “It should be intuitively obvious to the most casual of observers …”
Doc, I see it. Who can bring to fruition the vision new coaching best?
!?!
