In Kate Fagan's latest blog post she answers the question everyone was asking after last night's game: why didn't Jrue Holiday play? After today's practice, Sixers coach Eddie Jordan talked about not playing Holiday. He said he felt bad he didn't get him in the game. His reasoning was that New York's guards -- Chris Duhon, Nate Robinson, etc. -- were playing at a high, intense level. Higher than is usual for a pre-season game. Jordan said he didn't feel comfortable tossing Holiday into that situation. It sounded like he was uncomfortable with it not because of potential mistakes/turnovers, but moreso to preserve Holiday's psyche. Good try. If Eddie is worried about Jrue's psyche in a pre-season game against Chris Duhon and Nate Robinson, then how is he going to feel when the regular season starts? I think this is either a lame excuse to cover up his old school approach to rookies, or there is something seriously wrong with Jrue Holiday. If his psyche is fragile enough to be damaged in a pre-season game the he should find a new career. On one play, I believe it was the second quarter, Willie Green and Andre Iguodala went up for the same rebound. Iguodala snatched it from Green -- barely -- but when he came down, he glared at Green then stole a look to the Sixers bench as if to say, "what's he doing trying to take that rebound from me?" (That's how the interaction looked from press row, about 10 yards away.) I'm assuming these are the types of interactions that Jordan would want to eliminate. Awesome that he's addressing them so early. As much as I disagree with Eddie not playing Jrue, I agree with his stance here. Most of us despise Bill Green, so I can imagine how some of his teammates feel, but that doesn't mean you glare at him for trying to take your rebound in a pre-season game. Andre is supposed to be the leader of this team, and giving Bill the "Kobe stare" isn't exactly great leadership in my opinion -- even if it is Bill Green. Jordan took the team out of the PO after the first quarter. Jordan said he is still learning how to coach this team and that the move was an "in-game feel," based on some of the Knicks knowing the Princeton. He explained that because he hasn't installed all of the options, his guys were out there without the proper counters. He also said that some of those Knicks would still know the calls for plays and because his guys weren't at the point where they could run the offense without calls (based on reads), he felt like continuing to run it would put them at a disadvantage. That all makes sense. Ehhh, I still would have rather seen them learn on the fly. This is after all, the pre-season!
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