Jrue wit a J, Holiday

Nice to Meet you Jrue, Welcome to Phildelphia.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

With the 17th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, the new old logo Philadelphia 76ers select Jrue Holiday from UCLA.

Coming into the night, Ty Lawson was the player I was hoping the Sixers would select.  How can you not draft Lawson; he was the leader on both sides of the court for the NCAA Champion Tarheels, and he is the basketball version of Brian Westbrook.  To see him get drafted with the very next pick after the Sixers by Minnesota, only to get traded to the Nuggets (who are going to be sick next year) hurt at first.  Shit it still feels like we missed an opportunity, but the more I see about Jrue the Damaja the more I like him.

Jrue is a 6′4, 200 pound, 19 year old point guard who was the 2007-08 Gatorade National Boys (HS) Basketball Player of the Year and self proclaimed “Floor General” at UCLA last year.  He fits exactly what the 76ers needed, especially with Andre Miller leaving in Free Agency (probably/hopefully).  We need to move on to a new era.

Forget Holiday’s 8.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game during his one year at UCLA.  The kid plays defense, hustles, passes the ball, has handle, court vision and can clearly score beyond what his college numbers indicate.  They don’t give High School POY honors to kids who can’t score.  Check out the McDonald’s All-American game highlights, we might have a problem here.

Best Kept Secret backdrop an added bonus to Holiday’s domination.

The Sixers clearly have a long ways to go, and although Thaddius and I both thought that Ty Lawson would have made a great Quarterback for the 76ers, there is a lot to like about the kid Jrue Holiday.

Getting out in the open floor is his biggest strength huh, sounds like a perfect fit for this team/scheme.  Enough coach-speak, back the highlights (defensive this time).

Just to show how far Holiday slipped to the Sixers (and how lucky we may have been), here is a nice NFL Combine style pre-draft workout with the Sacramento Kings, who had the 4th pick in the draft.

More highlights…

I like Holiday’s attacking style, and his hustle on both sides of the court should translate well into the Sixer’s running, attacking mentality.  The kid is young, but he’ll have his chance to contribute this year for sure.  Honestly I was hoping we could move Willie Green and a future pick to jump back into the late 1st round of the draft to pick up Wayne Ellington (Wishful Thinking).  Stefanski, quit Tweeting and do your job.

From what I’ve seen thus far (which really means little to nothing about his NBA career), it looks like Jrue will be a significnant contributor in the 76ers continued youth movement and future.

But J, what’s up with the back (and lower back) tattoos on the internet?

Seriously though Jrue. Seven letters can't fit across your back in a single direction?