FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Sports

Jrue Holiday Is A Pelicans Building Block (When Healthy)

Since starting point guard Jrue Holiday returned to the lineup, the Pelicans' winning percentage has skyrocketed. But should New Orleans keep him around after the season?
Photo by Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

New Orleans Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday has had a strange, frustrating journey in the NBA.

The 17th overall pick out of UCLA in 2009, Holiday made his first All-Star Game at just 22 years old, during the 2012-13 season. He also logged nearly 3,000 minutes that year, and has struggled to stay on the court ever since. Recurring injuries are the worst, especially for point guards who have to chase the sport's fastest players over and under screens for 30-plus minutes while conducting an uptempo offense on the other end. Holiday's 2013-14 season was cut short by surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right tibia, and he missed 41 straight games the following year with the same injury. Last year, he fractured his right orbital wall in March after he ran into Kristaps Porzingis' elbow. He suffered through a toe injury, too.

Advertisement

This season, Holiday missed training camp and the first 20 days of this year's regular season to be with his pregnant wife, former U.S. women's soccer star Lauren Holiday, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in September. Her surgery was successful and the couple's newborn baby, Jrue Taylor, is healthy. So, finally, is Holiday, who is still only 26 years old (!) and about to enter unrestricted free agency with plenty of quality basketball left in him.

Read More: Everybody on the Knicks is Either Acting Like a Child or Getting Hit in the Face

New Orleans struggled without their starting point guard, winning only two of their first 12 games this season, but Holiday, who kept in touch with teammates via text and watched most of their games, wasn't worried.

"Looking at them, I knew they were good," Holiday said. "Obviously, they played hard, they played defense and they ran hard and did everything as hard as they could, so I do think it was just a matter of time, about meshing, getting together and finishing off games."

That's nice for him to say, but the Pelicans are relieved to have him back. They're 2-13 in games he has missed and, heading into Monday's contest against the Indiana Pacers, 14-12 when he plays. The reason why is as simple as his plus/minus: When Holiday is on the floor the Pelicans have outscored opponents by a team-high 18 points; when he's off it, they've been outscored by a team-low 133 points.

Advertisement

Holiday says it was easy to join the fold after missing the first dozen games because he already knew most of his incoming teammates. He has worked out with Hill since the former Pacer was a rookie, and studied guys like Langston Galloway, E'Twaun Moore, and Terrence Jones to see how they fit in on both ends.

And yet Holiday's numbers aren't spectacular for a NBA point guard, a position that lately has been responsible for mind-melting production around the league. He's averaging 14 points, 7.2 assists, and 3.5 rebounds per game, with 41.9/35.7/69.6 shooting splits. At the same time, Holiday has an excuse: aside from Anthony Davis, the Pelicans aren't exactly loaded with players whose skill sets make it easy to run effective offense. And despite a recent and necessary shift to make Davis the starting center, this team struggles to space the court.

Holiday helps by massaging pick-and-roll action as effectively as anyone. He's tall enough to skip passes to the corner, and patient enough to keep his dribble alive while he waits for an opening to crack. But some of New Orleans' lineup combinations make his job harder than it has to be. Due to how their team was built, the Pelicans are still handcuffed to playing two bigs at once, cramping the floor and preventing ball-handlers, namely Holiday, from getting where they want to go. Take a look:

Still, Holiday ranks in the 80th percentile as a pick-and-roll passer according to Synergy Sports, with New Orleans scoring 1.21 points per possession when he feeds the roll man and 1.15 points per possession when he swings it to a spot-up shooter. Those numbers are ridiculous; when you combine them, Holiday's pick-and-roll passing compares favorably to Chris Paul, LeBron James, and James Harden.

Advertisement

When the conversation shifts to Holiday's own scoring touch, however, things come back down to earth.

Holiday has never been a good finisher around the basket; right now, among players who attempt at least five pull-up jumpers a game, only D'Angelo Russell is less accurate. Holiday made zero baskets in a recent eight-point loss to the Chicago Bulls.

Even when his shots don't fall, Holiday can impact the game in other ways, especially on the defensive end, where he's among the cream of the crop. "Some guys don't want to defend in the league at that point guard position, as a scorer. I think he takes it personally," Hill said. "He's one of the better defenders at the point guard position."

According to Synergy Sports, Holiday ranks in the 98th percentile as an isolation defender. Opponents are shooting a measly 18.5 percent against him in those situations, and his ability to switch and cover multiple positions allows the Pelicans to go small, switch everything, and not get bullied on the glass.

"I think I've always been good defensively one on one," Holiday said. "I don't like getting beat. I don't like feeling like someone's getting the best of me."

Holiday is bouncy and long and coaxes tough mid-range jumpers all by himself. Few players can go under screens as liberally as Holiday does and still recover out and contest the shot. He ranks fifth among all point guards in Defensive Real Plus-Minus, and the Pelicans allow 99.1 points per 100 possessions when he's on the floor, a rate that would make them the best defense in the league.

Advertisement

These qualities don't show up on the box score but they are increasingly valuable in a league that prioritizes versatility on the perimeter more than ever before. Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry is plenty confident in Holiday's ability, enough to stick him on top scoring wings (like Jimmy Butler and Harrison Barnes) or switch him onto bigs without the need to send help (like Porzingis and Kevin Love). That stuff matters, especially in a seven-game series.

There are other intangibles that Holiday brings to New Orleans. There's an even-keel confidence to his game, and it carries over to the way he handles himself off the floor, in the locker room and on team flights and bus rides.

A year ago, Pelicans rookie Buddy Hield didn't know a thing about Holiday. "I would lie to you if I told you I watched him before," he said. "I never watched Jrue a lot until I got drafted. He was always overshadowed by all those other great point guards in the league." Now, however, Hield considers Holiday a mentor. "When I get caught in a bad situation I say, 'Jrue, what can I do better?' He's one of those guys who keeps everything cool and calm."

Holiday may be an underrated stabilizing presence, but that doesn't mean re-signing him is a no-brainer for New Orleans. If he stays healthy for the rest of this season, there's a solid chance max-contract offers will pour in from teams unsure about their point guard situations. But the Pelicans can't ignore his injury history when deciding how long they want to commit; their absolute top priority needs to be lifting Davis's ceiling as high as it can possibly go. Healthy Holiday is an ideal building block to utilize beside Davis. Hobbled Holiday is a burden.

Should the Pelicans keep him around? It's a tough call. On one hand, they risk letting him walk for nothing, and it's highly unlikely his replacement will be better. On the other, if New Orleans locks him up for five years only to have the stress fractures in his right leg become a recurring issue, their chance to compete for a title before Davis's current contract expires is zilch. The Pelicans can offer Davis one of their Designated Player Exceptions and pay him way more money than any other team, but there's always the chance he skips town if he wants to contend for a championship and feels New Orleans can't manage that.

For now, though, Holiday is focused on getting through the grind of a NBA season, and maybe, he hopes, returning to the All-Star Game.

"That's a goal for everybody who plays in the NBA, to be an All-Star, but I guess right now I'm feeling good," Holiday said. "I'm healthy. I'm going through a full season, knock on wood, without getting injured, and that's kind of the goal right now."

Want to read more stories like this from VICE Sports? Subscribe to our daily newsletter.