Jrue Holiday played the Russell Westbrook role for UCLA during a mixed bag freshman season.  He finished with double-figure scoring in just three of his final 13 collegiate games, but he did more than enough in his one college year body of work to demonstrate that he has as much raw talent as any guard in this draft.

The comparisons to Westbrook are kind of superficial in the sense that they were both athletic combo guards playing beside Darren Collison in more of a shooting guard role, while they both are NBA point guard prospects.  Holiday is as about as athletic as it gets, but in a different way than the off the charts Westbrook, but the former is more advanced coming out of college as a pure basketball player than the latter, even with one fewer season in Westwood.  The success the latter had in his rookie season should only help the former?s stock as well, even though scouts are far from convinced because of the first sentence in the next paragraph.

Holiday?s experience running the point position at the college level is more limited than what teams would like to be able to see, but he has an excellent handle and enough swagger/confidence to run it.  He will not be completely stuck in combo guard limbo, but just how pure (i.e. good) of a point guard he will become is a jury we will hear back from in a year or two.  

For starters, however, Holiday has an excellent handle, with great balance, huge hands and a low center of gravity.  He tends to overdribble when he is running the point, but that will go away when he becomes comfortable within the structure of his NBA team?s offense.  

Holiday can lose his man off the dribble and will and with more open lanes in the NBA than in college, he will have more clear paths to the rim than he saw in his one collegiate season.  He can finish flushes with either hand in traffic, but he isn?t dead-set on trying to dunk everything, which I actually like to see.

He bounces off defenders and doesn?t rush things when he gets into the lane, which allows him to finish much the same way as Chris Paul.  In a sense, he can become a taller Chris Paul.  The decision-making needs significant improvement to be even half as effective as Paul, but unlike the NBA?s best point guard, Holiday will be able to finish at the rim due to his height, lift and pure athleticism.

Many of his misses when driving to the bucket come from being too ambitious when he isn?t able to get enough space and be under control, so they become improbable prayers.  With that said, Holiday is so acrobatic in the air that the improbable frequently looks routine.

Holiday is also very good with his pre-dribble moves, whether it is an excellent shot fake, or merely readying himself to exploit a seam he senses prior to the catch.  Because he will be able to beat his man and get to the elbow, Holiday will develop one of the more reliable mid-range games.

The mid-range, plus his ability to go all the way to the rim like a Derrick Rose or Rajon Rondo, Holiday will force help defenders to collapse into the paint and Holiday does an excellent job of kicking to the open spot-up shooter.  It is subtle but the delivery of Holiday?s passes are impressively sophisticated, more often than not reaching the target in the most ideal placement possible.

Mechanically, his perimeter shot is very strong, beginning with how well he sets up his hands and body ahead of receiving the ball when he is spotting up.  Holiday does a great job of getting good bend with his legs and lift into his fairly consistent follow-through.  He is far from a pure shooter, but he is a pure ballplayer and those almost always become efficient shooters.  He shot 30.7% from beyond the arc and 72.6% from the line, which is of course comparable to Rose?s 33.7% and 71.2% at Memphis as a freshman and Westbrook?s 33.8% and 71.3% as a sophomore.

Playing for Ben Howland at UCLA means that the importance of defense will be stressed on a daily basis and Holiday is athletic enough to comfortably defend both guard positions on the NBA level.

His arms are extremely long, which allows him to be a nuisance in the passing lanes and paired with his abilities in the air, make him an excellent rebounder for a guard.

Holiday is a motivated help defender, which is half the battle for players as talented as he is, but needs some adjustments in maintaining vision of the ball and his man.  When he sags down to help in the post, Holiday will be extremely disruptive because of his length and instincts.

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