He’s not close to Holiday, who is a better scorer, passer, and defender. Krueger also has better court vision and a better feel for the game.
Rozier reminds me more of Eric Bledsoe.
My point was to compare both their year threes.
I recognize that he is not close to Holiday right now. But the reason why the Sixers traded Holiday initially was because they didn't think he had all-star potential. They didn't think he was a player they could build around. That was because he was an average play-maker and defender at that time.
He has improved his feel for the game tremendously since his third year, partially because he has been given so many reps as the ball-handler in an offense.
I think that’s an inaccurate description of Jrue’s career. For one thing, he was already an all-star when traded. In his third year, he was sharing ball-handling responsibilities with Iguodala, also an elite playmaker.
Holiday has been a binky of mine since his rookie year. I liked his confidence behind the scenes at the NBA draft, which I attended on behalf of SB Nation that year. Living outside Philly at the time, I watched a ton of his games.
His feel for the game has always been impressive, as has his balance of scoring / passing.
I guess we disagree then. Holiday averaged 13.5 points and 4.5 assists his third year in 34 minutes a game. HIs shooting was at 43/38/78 splits, but he wasn't getting to line a lot (like Rozier).
His year four numbers skyrocketed because he was playing 38 minutes a game and his usage rate went from 22 to 27%. Although his shooting numbers stayed relatively the same, as he became more responsible to distribute the ball, his turnovers almost doubled, from 2.1 in year 3 to 3.7 in year 4. He only made the all-star game in a very down year for the Eastern Conference, when Tyson Chandler and Luol Deng also made it. For comparison, his production was roughly the same per36 as Dinwiddie or Reggie Jackson this year, who clearly are not all-stars. The Sixers went 34-48 that year.
Holiday was the most meh player in the NBA in that year. He was fine. He was a good player, but no one thought you could build a legit contender around him. When faced with the prospect of building around Holiday, Turner, Young, and Hawes, the Sixers embraced the tank.
I like Holiday a lot, especially today. But I don't want to revise history about the kind of player he was back then. I think he was very similar to the kind of player Rozier is today.