Jrue Holiday, Pelicans have biggest test of season against LA Clippers

In a dangerous spot with Lonzo and Ingram banged-up, the New Orleans Pelicans truly need veteran leader Jrue Holiday to play at an All-Star level.

Off to a 2-8 start, the New Orleans Pelicans can find plenty of places to push the blame, even if they’ve been pretty patient in comments to the media. However, one of the biggest components to the let down of a start has been a meager run to begin the year from Jrue Holiday.

Holiday was expected to be this team’s leader on offense, a vice grip on defense, and an MVP candidate when it came down to voting at season’s end.

Instead, Jrue is shooting the ball at career-worst rates through the first eight games of his season. Shooting 36.4% from the floor and 23.3% from three. Still, he’s attempting 5.5 shots from three a night, which would be a career-high if it holds.

Another concerning trend comes from watch Jrue Holiday avoid going to the rim, as he’s only taking 19.8% of his shots from within three feet. While he’s making 75% of those looks, he’s just not attacking inside, even though he’s plenty capable of exposing defenses from that range.

Getting to the rack is key for a minus shooter like Jrue Holiday. Often throughout his 11-year career, the point guard has found ways to thrive on the attack, whether it’s kicking or scoring.

Jrue has to get back to his hard-nosed style if this team wants to start winning more games.

Not even getting to the free-throw line as he did a season ago, Holiday is down to 3.1 attempts from the stripe per game, almost a full attempt less than his 4 attempts per game last season.

A good enough free-throw shooter to fight bigger defenders to create more looks from that territory, Holiday is shooting a plenty good 76% from the line this season to go along with his 78.4% career rate on the free looks.

So far, he’s had three games with at least four turnovers, hasn’t cracked the 20-point mark, and has only posted double-digit assist totals in two games, granted it was 11 assists in the Pelicans’ two most recent tilts.

The counting stats aren’t even that bad for Jrue. He’s averaging 14.6 points, 7.3 assists, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.9 steals. However, the ball hasn’t moved will in his hands, which is a concern.

Jrue Holiday doesn’t look like the player who’s averaged 20 points and shooting 48.4% from the floor, as he has in his last two seasons with the past two seasons.

Seemingly, his game is falling off early for a 29-year-old player with 11 years of NBA miles under his legs. This season was supposed to be an All-Star run for Jrue, not a falling-off point.

Earlier in the season, Holiday missed a pair of games dealing with knee soreness and fans should hope that’s all that’s happening to their star. To his credit, Jrue has looked better over the last couple of games but still isn’t the player fans have come to know in New Orleans.

There have been times when Jrue has looked in control this season, which has made it quite frustrating to watch when he doesn’t play up to his standards.

Like a lot of things with this Pelicans team, Jrue Holiday might simply be a Zion Williamson away from getting back in his comfort zone.

After all, Holiday was at his best playing alongside Anthony Davis in New Orleans and adding another gravitational player to absorb contact that might otherwise be attributed towards scorers crashing towards the rim.

The chemistry between Jrue and Zion was always going to be key for this team’s development, but this start just progressed that potential narrative. With the rookie still on the mend, that development has been somewhat delayed.

As a whole, the New Orleans Pelicans seem like a chemistry experiment that just hasn’t found a way to turn itself into victories. There were 12 new faces to the 18 total brought into the team’s training camp at the end of the summer.

The Pelicans needs someone besides Ingram to step up if they want to beat the Clippers on Thursday, preferably Jrue Holiday

When the LA Clippers roll into New Orleans on Thursday evening, the Pelicans could be in a dangerous spot, as Lonzo Ball has missed two straight and is trending towards a third absence, while Brandon Ingram seems to be a game-time decision after being held out on Monday.

Playing the banged-up Pelicans, the Clippers will bring something they haven’t had throughout their 7-3 start to the year; an MVP-level player in Paul George.

On media day, this team did talk about playoffs, even if that’s looking like less of reality through ten games. They’ve struggled to beat the best in the Western Conference so far, despite picking up a commanding win over the Denver Nuggets on Halloween.

The Clippers have looked like title favorites in their first ten games and that was without George on the floor. While Kawhi Leonard might not be active against the Pelicans (it’ll be the second night of a back-to-back and it seems he’ll play tonight against the Houston Rockets), there’s plenty on the Clippers to keep the team busy.

Nights like these are when the Pelicans need Jrue Holiday to be the player they’ve come to expect over his seven seasons in New Orleans. They can’t afford for him to play the passive style we’ve seen in his eight games so far, at least not if Jrue is in their future outlook.

Head coach Alvin Gentry might be wise to try to run more of the offensive through Holiday against the Clippers, as Ingram is a bit banged up and Lonzo is out of the lineup. Holiday’s 22% usage rate is his lowest since his third season in the league, the year before he became an All-Star for the Philadelphia 76ers organization.

At their best last season, Jrue was the clear leader on a team lacking much excitement without Davis playing focused basketball.

Holiday also needs to find a way to turn his unique defensive abilities to create easy looks for his Pelicans teammates.

Due in no small part to his normally impressive defense, Holiday found ways to lead by checking more boxes than just the ones on the scoresheet. He averages 1.5 steals per game and an impressive 108 defensive rating for his career.

Against the Clippers, Jrue will need to shut down creative guards like Lou Williams (22.3 points) and Patrick Beverley (7.1 points) in order to help the league-worst Pelicans defense, who fans should basically expect to get roasted by the Clippers regardless of Holiday’s performance.

Eventually, this team has to win games against playoff teams if they want to prove they’re interested in keeping this nucleus together for the long haul. While the Clippers might be a tough ask, the least fans can do is hope for gritty play from Jrue Holiday, something that’s been missing from the formula to start the year.

The last seven years for Jrue Holiday and the New Orleans Pelicans have been a little rocky as a whole, but the one thing that’s been consistent is the effort Holiday displays on a nightly basis. Hopefully, that effort can get ramped back up, helping to turn up some of the heat for all members responsible for the team’s cold start to the 2019-2020 season.