Holiday falls to Sixers. Happy?

Apparently, yes. And welcome to Sixerland dude.

(NOTE: please give me credit at least for avoiding any pun in the title… Holiday time, Sixers go Holiday etc).

I always admitted I don’t know shlt about college bball. I confirm it again, of course, I cannot pretent to be an expert now, it would be silly.

I just don’t have the time to follow NCAA hoops, watching and blogging the Sixers from here requires a lot of time and dedication, so no room for junior overseas bball (LOL).

That’s why I really don’t know what to say about Jrue Holiday, Sixers’ latest draft pick.

He was expected to be a Top 10 pick, I read almost everywhere. That’s why I used the verb “fall” for the title. I guess that is said every year for many, many players.

But what I am 100% sure of is:

1) in recent years, very rarely Sixers completely f’d the draft up. Instead, they often found good/very good players and also some gems, even with late picks.

Think Willie Green, Korver, Lou Williams, all excellent players in terms of # of pick/efficiency ratio. Dalembert as well – not his fault if he was eventually overpaid, we are talking about what spot he was drafted at. Jason Smith had a promising rookie season and then got injured, but he showed he can play.

Thad Young and, to a lesser extent – but only because he played only a full season – Marreese Speights, can be considered real steals. Very good players that many teams passed on – and now regret it.

The only Rodney Carney could perhaps be labeled as a bust so far, but it’s not completely excluded yet that he will lately turn into a good/decent NBA player (think Matt Barnes or John Salmons, also former Sixers).

That’s why I am confident that DiLeo (almost a genius in evaluating young talent) & his staff did a good job once again. Also I am always optimistic, so no reason to panic or complain.

2) we needed a PG and we drafted a PG. Makes sense.

3) in a day where a lot of blockbuster trades were completed (Darko to NY, Shaq to Cavs, Carter to Magic – I like this for Orlando – etc), we didn’t make any dumb, hurried move and we decided to stand pat, which I think was the best thing to do given the circumstances. I didn’t like any of the possible trades I’ve read in these days, Dalembert for Radmanovic/Mohammed, moving Brand etc. Lateral moves at best.

My idea: keep this core intact, make it work with the new coach, let the young guys continue to grow, try to fit a 100% healthy Brand into the team and see what happens.

In mid December, we can talk again about trades. Ouh, and by the way, Dalembert’s trade value will be IMMENSELY higher in January, the highest next summer.

I am not a great fan of Sam, as you might know, but whoever thinks that it’s possible to play Brand at C for a season, or is ok with Nazr Mohammed as starter, should have his brain examined. Want to get rid of Sam? Fine. But give me a half decent, REAL CENTER to replace him. A Kendrick Perkins, a Brendan Haywood (= Dalembert’s efficiency/numbers, but for half the price). 

But these are different stories. So instead of trying to analyze a player that I actually don’t know, I decided to make a little collection of comments about Holiday: it will be fun (or sweet, depending on his efficiency) to read them at the end of the season.

Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel first puts Holiday among last draft’s winners…:

Last year UCLA had a point guard battle between Holiday and Darren Collison. Bruins coach Ben Howland went with the experienced Collison rather than the freshman Holiday, who played shooting guard.

So, for at least a night, Holiday got a little friendly revenge. He wound up on top, getting picked by Philadelphia at 17. Collison had to only wait until New Orleans grabbed him four spots later. Those must have been some pretty good practices in Westwood.

.. then describes him like this:

Analysis: This isn’t to bash UCLA, a premier program with a great coach. But why Holiday ever went there is a baffling. He’s a point guard who had to play shooting guard (out of position) because the Bruins already had a starter. Had he gone somewhere else (every school wanted him) he could’ve started and probably would’ve been a higher pick, which based on the fact he left after his freshman year was clearly his only goal in college. Very well may be a steal at this spot.

On Kate Fagan’s report we can enjoy DiLeo’s enthusiasm:

“We tried to move up a little bit, we couldn’t move up, we feel very fortunate because most people had him going top-10,” said Sixers assistant general manager Tony DiLeo. “For him to drop to us, we’re ecstatic. He’s exactly what we wanted.”

“Our scouting staff was unanimous,” DiLeo said. “Looking at the players in our area, players we thought might drop down to us, he was a wish player to us. We didn’t think he would drop down. But we were unanimous as a staff that if he dropped down, we were going to take him.”

On DraftExpress’ Holiday page you can read his strenghts and his weaknesses (3 pt and FT shooting woes worry me a bit, I have to be honest…) while Hoopshype has Rodney Stuckey and Keeyon Dooling (LOL) as best case/worst case scenario comparisons:

Still a work in progress. Possesses a high basketball IQ and shows the ball handling skills and unselfishness to project as a point guard down the road.

Let’s go on with Kate Fagan’s post on her blog, I like these excerpts:

Holiday’s strengths appear to be his versatility, his court vision, and his ability to execute, especially off the pick-and-roll. He doesn’t seem to be a guy with explosive athleticism and game-changing skills in transition (like Ty Lawson), but as far as strong point guard skills and upside (let’s keep in mind this kid is 19), Holiday has plenty of that.

The knocks on Holiday are that he is unproven (and this is very true, with what was seen at UCLA), that he doesn’t have a go-to scoring mentality (although that might not be a bad thing on a Sixers roster filled with guys who think they are go-to scorers), that his outside shot needs work (although I heard from a number of people that his form is textbook and he just needs more repetition), and that he has average athleticism and explosiveness

A sweet end of this post could be Chad Ford’s analysis on ESPN:

I really like what the 76ers did, taking an opportunity to nab a lottery talent who was falling because of injury concerns. Holiday is in a long line of players who slipped when team doctors got nervous, with Danny Granger as a prime example. The Sixers could’ve gone with a more proven guard like Ty Lawson or Eric Maynor, but Holiday has more upside and could turn into a terrific pick for them.

A steal? A stiff? A player that will contribute immediately? Lately? A project? We’ll see.

Welcome Jrue (?), can’t wait to see you in a (old, of course) Sixers uniform.

In UCLA he was like this (I like his shooting form !):