There wasn’t much to get excited about last season in Philadelphia, as the Sixers stumbled to a 27-55 mark, making them one of the more disappointing teams in all of the league last season. The Philly faithful did get some consolation for such a dismal season by netting Evan Turner, the NCAA POY last season with the #2 overall pick, although some fans are already getting nervous over Turner’s lack of production this pre-season.
One bright spot this pre-season has been the outstanding play of 2nd year point man Jrue Holiday, who hit the ground running during the latter parts of last season after Allen Iverson once again left town. He has already beaten out last year’s starter at the point Lou Williams, who is probably best suited as an instant offense combo guard off the bench rather than a starter.
New coach Doug Collins decision to start Holiday, who was once the #2 HS prospect in the country two seasons ago, is a good one since the still only 20 year old play-maker projects as a game-changer on both sides of the ball. Let’s not forget that Holiday was once rated higher than Brandon Jennings and Demar DeRozan as seniors by Rivals. At 6’4 and nearly 200 lbs, Jrue is a big point guard who has the potential to be the Sixers’ best man defender, even on par with that of Andre Iguodala.
Holiday slipped in last year’s NBA Draft (#17 pick), mainly because he was forced to play out of position as a 2 guard in his lone season at UCLA because Darren Collison, their incumbent at the point, decided to stick around for his sophomore campaign. After leading the NBA Summer leagues in scoring and averaging a cool 12 ppg, and a team leading 5.3 ast and 1.7 steals in the pre-season, the Sixers have decided to pick up the 3rd year option on Holiday, keeping him in Philadelphia through the end of the ’11-’12 season.
Maybe it was this demolishing of New York’s 6’11 Anthony Randolph during a pre-season tilt last Thursday that helped convince the Sixers to keep Jrue in Philly:
You can also check out Jrue’s tremendous all-around skills in his ultimate HS mixtape.
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
