Jrue Holiday knows how hard it is to play perimeter defense in the age of pace-and-space. But the New Orleans Pelicans guard followed up a first-team All-Defensive selection in 2017-18 with a second-team nod last season, even as the Pelicans imploded all the way to 14th in the Western Conference.
Holiday understands the challenge of the modern NBA defender, as he explained to NBA.com’s Jim Eichenhofer earlier this year.
"“At this point, you really have to pick people up from darn near halfcourt. But then in one or two dribbles, they can get by you that easily. I do think it is a lot tougher. I don’t know how it was 20 years ago, but everyone talks about how you could be more physical (as a defender) and kind of ride and bump (offensive players. “Now you can’t — but you still have to stay in front of them. You have to slide your feet, cut them off or anticipate where they’re going. To be able to stop somebody — by that I mean slow them down — like a (James Harden) or (Stephen Curry) or (Paul George), guys who are doing incredible stuff, to be it’s kind of like a work of art.”"
And Holiday has created some masterpieces over his 10-year NBA career. At 6-foot-4 with a 6-foot-7 wingspan, Holiday has to use his quick feet and positioning when guarding bigger wings.
Holiday will be more of a focal point for the New Orleans defense with elite rim protection no longer on the table after Anthony Davis was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Health is a concern for Holiday, as well, as he has played in more than 67 games just once over the last six seasons. His 35.9 minutes per game workload last season may be trimmed a bit this season with the Pelicans improving their backcourt depth this offseason and that might help.
Holiday, though, will be the guy tasked with stopping the other team’s hottest perimeter scorer and based on his recent body of work, he’ll give them a run for their money.