Not Ready To Give Up On Jrue Holiday

Jrue may have had his worst performance of the season against the Dallas Mavericks. And he hasn’t been playing all too well this season. But, I’m not ready to call him a bust. I’m not ready to just let him go. There will not be any stats to back this up. We all know what Jrue can do. At his best he’s a solid defender who can get to the rim and hit some jumpers.

I want to explore why Jrue may be having a hard time. My buddy Sean O’Connor from The Sixer Sense brought up an interesting point. One of the reasons Holiday may be having problems is the very short leash that Collins has on him. You wonder why Jrue takes so many jumpers? There’s less chance of a turnover when taking these jumpers. and it’s apparently reported that Collins punishes those who have more than 3 turnovers. If that’s the case, Holiday will actually lower his ceiling of potential.

To me, PG’s need a larger window to make mistakes. PG’s run the offense so the ball is in their hands most of the time, or at least often. I’ve noticed that Jrue seems hesitant at times. He’s scared to make a mistake. Unfortunately, making some mistakes is the best way to learn in this sport. That’s why experience goes a long way. At a young age, Jrue is still learning the game. It’s his third year but his first year was victim to coach that shall not be named and the 09-10 season. So really Jrue has had only last year and this year to really work on his game in a stable environment.

Tell Jrue to go Lou on everybody. It’s quite obvious Jrue has the ability to get to the rim almost at will. There is a higher chance at mistakes but settling for long two’s is the doom of the Sixers. Yes there are plays where you just want to bang your head against a wall because Jrue tries too much to make a pass which results in a turnover. They frustrate me to no end. But, I’m still hanging on to the fact that he is young, and these things happen. And with the very tight leash that he’s on, he doesn’t get to try and play through his mistakes.

Sixers don’t have a backup PG. Holiday himself is not really a pure PG but he’s able to play the role. Lou? No. It may be wise to snag an older PG to sit with Jrue and teach him the basics. I’m just not ready to mail it in on Holiday yet. Especially since I’ve seen him at his best. And his best is a thing of beauty. Is there any blame to his regression? I do put most of it on Collins. I actually think he’s ok with the long 2′s. If that’s the case, Sixers are not going to survive the season. Plain and simple.

But blame does come of Holiday. You have to know not to make that pas Jrue. Be smart. You don’t have to be flashy. I can only knock Holiday for his turnovers. I can’t get on him for the shot selection. And here’s a basic cycle to why Jrue will continue to shoot jumpers.

• Collins approves jumpers over attacking the rim
• Collins doesn’t want turnovers.
• Turnovers happen more likely while attacking the rim
• Holiday doesn’t want to turn ball over because he knows he’ll be benched.
• Remember, Collins approves jumpers
• So Holiday takes jumpers

I pretty much see it like that. And so I’m looking at Collins. I think it’s obvious that Collins wants the long 2′s. He hasn’t said anything about it in a negative way. Lou Williams just chucks up long 3-balls because he can. Collins is fine with the long 2′s.

What I’m trying to say is that giving up on Holiday because of what he is doing out there is not really fair. He’s a young player who actually listens to his coach. Problem is, coach is somewhat leading him in a path that Holiday should not be taking. But as for Holiday, he’s going to be a really good player some day. And I’m not giving up on him just yet based on what I have seen before from him.

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