The connective tissue of Jrue Holiday
Milwaukee's struggles, most simply, are about missing Jrue Holiday.
The Bucks dropped their second straight game to the young and impetuous Hornets, despite Giannis & Khris Middleton holding their own just fine. Giannis didn't help by settling for a couple of jumpers down the stretch of last night's game — particularly when he was mowing down or spinning past whichever Plumlee that was without any remorse. PJ Washington played tough with 5 fouls down the stretch and everyone watching endured two lengthy referee reviews down the stretch in order to watch Lamelo seal the game with a loping, looping, off-balance little floater across the lane. And while you can't blame poor Pat Connaughton for bumbling that pass with the high-heat from Giannis late in the game, how depressing is it to not even get a shot off. Yuck.
The Bucks struggles, most simply, are about missing Jrue Holiday. He is the connective tissue that holds the team together.
If you were missing your bones, blood, and cartilage, you'd just be a puddle of mushy sadness. And while the Giannis/Middleton Bucks still seemingly have a lot to offer, it's hard to undersell just how important Holiday is to the team.
Jrue Holiday is an easy player to miss if you're not paying attention. He's a mere 6'3" and he doesn't jump over the moon to haunt the dreams of Avery Bradley like some people. It's always hard to say a certain professional athlete "isn't athletic" — obviously Holiday is an elite athlete — but his game does not exactly prominently feature the burst and flash of some of his peers.
Instead, he keeps showing up, knees bent, in perfect guarding position, arm slightly extended and feet ready to seemingly effortlessly slide with his defender. The beauty of his work, is it doesn't look much like work. He seems to glide on defense, almost like he's skating across the floor, swiveling his hips, pivoting, and then raising an arm to contest a midrange jumper, time and time again. It seems like Holiday is never out of position, never late on a rotation — always making the right choice and executing the scheme to perfection.
On offense, he's similarly nondescript. He's not blowing by guys with a lightning-fast first step or a wicked crossover. He doesn't have the Svengali-like slither to his game like Kyrie Irving. And his shot is... fine. Some guys have a shot so pretty that I think they will never miss (Klay Thompson, Ray Allen, anybody from the Curry family), but there are other guys who are surprisingly effective with a more utilitarian approach. Jrue's shot gets the job done. It's serviceable. It always looks a little flat coming off his hands and it think its short, every time. But he's shot nearly 40% from deep both this year and last, and has a knack for big shots.
His basic box stats — unsurprisingly perhaps — are just like Jrue: solid, steady, reliable.
Here are my favorite numbers to measure his value this season: Jrue's plus/minus this year is an impressive +8.0. And the Bucks record when the play without Holiday? Three wins, seven losses.
See what I mean? That's a puddle of mushy sadness right there.