Justin Holiday

Strengths

Right-handed… After three less-than-spectacular seasons (see: 3.2 career points per game), Holiday has a pretty impressive finish to the 2009-10 season with 27 points in three NCAA Tournament games, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range. He continued his hot play into the 2010-11 season with eight double-digit scoring performances in the season's first eight games (14.25 average) and a 54 percent 3-point shooting clip. Toss in the fact that he is probably the Pac-10's best overall defender and Holiday had the makings of a NBA prospect. But that was just the beginning- he had an up-and-down season, often failing to be the aggressor in Washington's up-tempo offense, despite Abdul Gaddy's injury. Nonetheless, he had a solid overall season… Holiday has good size for a wing player, though not great. At 6'6", he has a long, wiry frame to boast with his pretty good athleticism (more of a fluid-type, won't jump out of the gym, but he's just very smooth)… Although we can't discredit Holiday's lack of an offensive game through his first three years, he will credit him for his strong emergence, especially as a perimeter threat. After his scorching start, he cooled off a bit, but made more 3s this season than he had even attempted in his freshmen, sophomore and junior years. He is at his best in catch-and-shoot situations, which is a shame to see that Isaiah Thomas didn't find Holiday more often on the perimeter when he took over point guard duties… As a defender, we've noticed Holiday's length, lateral quickness and fluid athleticism to stay in front of and disrupt players like Terrence Jones, Durell Summers, Tyler Honeycutt, Malcolm Lee and other NBA prospects…

Weaknesses

Holiday has a lengthy 180-pound frame that he will need to add-on strength to project to a player at the next level… With his improved perimeter game and quick first step, Holiday didn't put the ball on the floor that often, even to get an open mid-range jumper, which he is fully capable of knocking down. He isn't a consistent shot creator for himself as his ball-handling skills could use vast improvements all around. He just doesn't appear comfortable handling the ball, though he rarely makes poor decisions throughout the game…