jrue holiday appreciation post
a really, really good basketball player i will never forget
one of the reasons i started medium lights was so i could record my thoughts about games/players/events in the moment so that in the future, i could look back and remember how i felt about something when it happened.
we tend to forget how impressive things were as we become more removed from them. to fill that void, we use information that we do have, which is often incomplete, to try to put things in context.
for example, i will never truly understand how good someone like pete maravich was. i can look at all of his stats and watch the limited number of highlights i can access of his, but i'm sure that doesn't come close to the full, in-the-moment pistol pete experience.
jrue holiday will be one of those players who will, unfortunately, probably fall through the cracks of nba history. his resume at face value - 1x all star, 2x all defensive team, 16/4/6 career counting stats - is above average, but far from extraordinary.
which is why i'm writing this post. i hope i never forget how damn good of a basketball player jrue is/was.
it's important to first clarify what kind of player jrue is. he's not a guy who can single handedly transform your team/franchise. there's a noticeable difference between jrue and, say, chris paul. when chris is on your team, you know it - because he's the tone/pace setter. he orchestrates virtually everything that goes on, nearly every possession in which he touches the ball, in an extremely efficient manner. a game with chris paul in it is almost always played the way chris wants to play it.
jrue doesn't do that. he stays in his "box", in his role. but he's a master at it - jrue is rarely ever the underdog with the guy he's matched up against one-on-one. you never (like literally, never) have to help him with his assignment on defense, and he can attack almost anyone on offense to gain an advantage as well.
it's crucial to understand how jrue plays, because it explains how a guy like him can easily fly under the radar. if his team isn't good (which has been the case for the vast majority of his career), it's difficult for him to elevate everyone around him by himself. but on the flip side, the better his teammates are, the more his value compounds exponentially.
i've watched a lot of jrue over the past few years, easily thousands of offensive and defensive possessions. it's tough to highlight specific things he's good at because, well, he's kind of just good at everything.
for the sake of brevity, i'll just generally go over two of my favorite parts of his game.
1. defense
if there's one thing jrue holiday is known for, it's for his excellence on the defensive end of the floor. to me, one thing is fairly obvious:
and many players agree with me:
i put together this short compilation of jrue getting steals and blocks:
most guard defenders (especially ones that gamble for steals) time their swipes on the offensive player's crossover. that's when the ball is most vulnerable to getting taken, but it's also risky because a missed swipe on a crossover puts the defender out of position.
what's remarkable about jrue is he plays defense at 6'3" the same way a larger wing like kawhi leonard does: he shuffles his feet, beats his opponent to the spot, takes the contact in his chest and doesn't get bumped off, and simply steps in front of them and grabs the ball. he gets deflections without sacrificing his disciplined defensive position. that combination of lateral quickness, strength, and instincts is extremely rare, and it's what makes him one of the best to ever at that end of the court.
2. bully ball
as i noted, jrue is incredibly strong for his size. and he uses it on both ends of the court. if he sees a smaller (or even bigger, in some cases) defender on him, he will take him down to the low post.
a few clips of him scoring on post ups:
jrue is one of the only guards i can remember that legitimately just bullies his matchups on both ends of the court. and when he gets below the basket, his footwork and finishing touch are fantastic.
he's a fascinating player to watch outside of nba games as well. seeing how he moves up close during his workouts is always interesting:
the strength, quickness, skill is all on display. jrue is amazingly well-rounded, and it's a privilege to watch him play.
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That blocked dunk in the last video is tasty