Jrue Holiday

DOUG COLLINS, age 61, is an analog coach in a digital league, an association of players who best communicate in binary. Jrue Holiday is one such player, as Collins quickly discovered. In 2011, as the Sixers entered their first-round playoff series against the Heat, perhaps the league's best defensive team and easily its highest-profile squad. Collins realized the Sixers' only hope lay in productive possessions. He also realized that his 20-year-old point guard would have to play as many as 40 minutes every night.

These two youngsters are clearly under the most pressure to deliver on the expectations. They are the face of hope for the Sixers. Veterans Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand make the most money by far, but Sixers fans are staking everything in Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner becoming the best backcourt since Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney. That's asking a lot of two kids who have a combined 51 NBA starts between them, and one of the two has zero. At 19, Holiday was the youngest player in the NBA last season, but once former coach Eddie Jordan gave him the ball for good, he began to show flashes of a top-notch floor general.

Assistant coach Aaron McKie spent about 20 minutes feeding Jrue Holiday the ball for stop-and-pop jump shots at 76ers practice on Monday. Coach Doug Collins was working out on an elliptical machine nearby. He said he did not notice. "I didn't pay it any attention," Collins said. "I was sort of in my own world on my elliptical, just thinking thoughts about how I can continue to try to get the best out of this team. We're in a little bit of a tough situation. He'll let me know how he's feeling.

Right before he took the court against Denver Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson, I chatted up Jrue Holiday in front of his locker about the approaching deadline for him to get an extension done with the Sixers. Holiday told me that Sixers had come back with an offer that he and his agent, Tony Dutt, felt comfortable signing – after the game. "Uh, yeah they came back with something," Holiday said. "I think Ty and Steph' (Stephen Curry in Golden State) getting their deals done kind of helped me out and I feel they want to get my deal done too. My agent is doing a good job of keeping me informed because I've got some other things to focus on. " Holiday didn't want to tell me what the numbers were on his deal prior to the deal – I guessed four years at $11 million per and he looked at me sort of cockeyed - but a little after midnight they had an agreement: four years for $41 million.

Jrue Holiday insists he hasn't put much thought into his contract status, even though the midnight hour is literally approaching. As a fourth-year player, the 76ers point guard has until midnight Wednesday to sign an extension. If not, he would become a restricted free agent after the season. As a restricted free agent, the Sixers would have the right to match any offers. Holiday is currently making $2.67 million this season. So whether a deal gets done or not, Holiday insists it won't alter his approach.

ON ONE of the biggest nights of his professional basketball career, 76ers guard Jrue Holiday went to the Flyers-Rangers hockey game. He wasn't glued to his television, anxiously awaiting word whether he had made his first All-Star Game or not. Instead, he was rooting for the Flyers as they notched their first win of the season. Holiday did have his phone ready, though, and right around 7 p.m. he got the news he was hoping for: that he would be representing the Eastern Conference during All-Star Weekend, held Feb. 15-17 in Houston.

With each selection of the NBA draft, the 76ers knew they were that much closer to landing Jrue Holiday, a projected lottery pick, at the 17th spot. Earlier in the night, general manager Ed Stefanski said, he had debated moving up for Holiday, the 6-foot-4, 19-year-old point guard from UCLA whom most analysts considered a top-10 pick. Stefanski soon realized that Holiday might last without the team's improving its position. And he did. "As it got further and further in the draft, there was a comfort level," Stefanski said.

Until he actually gets into the Staples Center, actually steps on the floor, Jrue Holiday remains more excited to see his family than to play in Friday's Rookie Challenge. Holiday, the 76ers' second-year point guard, is the team's only representative this weekend in his hometown of Los Angeles, site of NBA all-star weekend. In addition to seeing family, Holiday also seems concerned about the weather. "I'm excited to go home," Holiday said. "I'm excited to be home. I've heard it's been raining.

It's appropriate that in the city that produced R&B super group Boyz II Men, Jrue Holiday, the youngest 76er in franchise history to be named an all-star, is making that same transformation right before our eyes. The transformation on the public stage is obvious. It began with the Sixers selecting an 18-year-old Holiday with the 17th overall pick in the 2009 draft following his freshman season at UCLA. In the three years since, Holiday has gone from a player who sometimes didn't even dress for games as a rookie to where he is now - appearing Sunday in his first NBA All-Star Game in Houston.

CHICAGO - Jeff Withey is projected to be picked in the middle of the first round in the NBA draft next month. The Kansas center is keyed up about Friday's interview with the Sixers, who are likely to pick 11th. "I'm extremely excited," Withey said Thursday at the NBA draft combine at Harrison Street Gym. "I know a couple of guys on the team. Jrue Holiday, I played with him way back when. . . . And I'm excited to go meet with them and go talk with them. Obviously, I haven't done it yet. So I'm just trying to prepare myself for it mentally.

If the 76ers were to heed the advice of their all-star point guard, they would call off the search for the team's next coach and promote from within. As the 76ers ramp up the search for their eighth coach in the last 11 seasons, Jrue Holiday, who has voiced his opinion that the Sixers should consult him during the search, cast his vote for the promotion of associate coach Michael Curry. "I've known him for the last three years," Holiday said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

WITH THE Sixers now mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, truths can be told about this season. Here's one that probably isn't a shock: Jrue Holiday is dog tired - from the shoulders down and from the ears up. After a spirited scrimmage session that lasted about a half-hour on Monday - the team's first get-together since a Saturday loss at Miami coupled with a Milwaukee win put the playoffs out of reach - Holiday was asked whether his...

Jrue and Justin Holiday have beaten some incredibly long odds as brothers who will play on the same NBA team. The Holidays became 76ers teammates after Justin, 23, was called up this weekend from the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League. The Sixers waived guard Jeremy Pargo to make room for Justin on their 15-man roster. The 6-foot-6, 180-pound guard, who practiced with the team on Monday, is signed through the rest of the season. "Now I get to play with [Jrue] at the highest level," Justin Holiday said.

As Jrue Holiday sees it, the 76ers acquired a solid defender in his brother, Justin Holiday. Justin Holiday practiced with Sixers Monday after the 6-foot-6 guard was signed over the weekend from the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League. "A defender, very long, has a lot length," said Jrue Holiday, describing Justin Holiday. "Really athletic. So I guess the opposite of me. "He can shoot the ball well and passes the ball well. I guess he does a little bit of everything.

It really is how you finish. Jrue Holiday, who had three points after three quarters, scored 11 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter to lead the 76ers to a 100-92 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center in front of 16,764 fans. The victory gave the Sixers (30-43) their third three-game winning streak of the season. Evan Turner led the Sixers with 22 points. Spencer Hawes finished with 19, Thaddeus Young and Damien Wilkins both scored 15, and Young grabbed 10 rebounds for the Sixers.

76ers star guard Jrue Holiday scored fewer than 10 points in a game just twice before Feb. 26. Since then, the 22-year-old has struggled, failing to reach double digits in three of nine games and finishing with fewer than 23 points in eight of the nine. Here are the key numbers for the fourth-year pro:   Date, Opp.             MIN.       FG-FGA     FT-FA 3P-3PA     AST        PTS. Feb. 26 vs. Magic       39:28            4-11         0-0          1-3         10              9 Feb. 28 at Bulls          41:20          10-19         1-3          1-4           3            22 March 2 vs. Warriors    42:08          11-20       2-2          3-5           7            27 March 3 at Wizards    36:21            4-19         4-4          2-7           6            14 March 5 vs. Celtics       41:55            6-17         6-6          0-3          10            18 March 6 at Hawks       38:13            3-12          4-5          1-3          12            11 March 8 at Heat       40:59            3-11         2-2          1-3           13            ...

The bloom is not off the rose when it comes to Jrue Holiday, but it is clear that the best player on the 76ers is struggling. The numbers over the last two weeks bear this out. Over the last six games, Holiday has averaged 12.5 points on 28.9 percent shooting. For the season he is averaging 18.5 points and making 44.4 percent of his shots. Holiday had 15 points, 11 assists, and just one turnover Monday night as the Sixers ended a five-game losing streak with a 106-97 victory over Brooklyn.

IT WAS A slight little change that made all the difference. While Doug Collins has been shuffling his lineup and rotation more often than a card dealer does his deck, a minor adjustment made by the point guard helped the Sixers post their most impressive effort in quite some time on Monday, when they defeated the Brooklyn Nets, 106-97. Jrue Holiday made the All-Star team by leading the Sixers in scoring and assists, by making big shots when they were needed and proving himself to be one of the most improved outside shooters at the position in the NBA. But a recent shooting slump and questionable decision-making made Holiday reel in his game a little bit on Monday.

IT WAS if the scattered offense and helter-skelter defense that had plagued the 76ers in so many losses had been corralled into a nice, tight, cohesive production. Rarely was there a bad shot taken. The Sixers continuously made the Brooklyn Nets expand what would have been 15-foot shots into tough 18-footers. Turnovers were scarce, shots fell and the ball moved with a type of precision that has been absent for too many games to count. When all those parts come together, as they did Monday at the Wells Fargo Center, the Sixers can do some impressive things.