According to Los Angeles Lakers ESPN beat writer Dave McMenamin, the San Antonio Spurs recently worked out Xavier point guard Tu Holloway.
Holloway stands as a 6’0 guard who averaged 17.5 points, 4.9 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 1.5 steals, shot 43% from the field, shot 35% from 3-point range, and got to the free throw line 7.4 times per game where he shot 86% from the charity stripe this past season.
The first thing you could like about this kid is that he’s an attacking type of guard, someone the Spurs could use off of their bench. Two things that stand out against him is his height, and outside shooting. Holloway made just 45 of his 130 three pointers this past season at Xavier, the outside shot is something most Spurs guards need.
According to ESPN, his player traits are penetrating, speed, and court vision. His positives are: high scoring combo guard, super quick first step, excellent perpetrator and finisher, good court vision, can play the point full time, and good defender. His negatives according to ESPN are: over dribbler, inconsistent jump shot, undersized.
ESPN projects him as a second round pick or going undrafted. Draft Express projects him also to be drafted in the second round with the 30th pick. Draft Express has his best case player projection as a D.J. Augustin and his worst case as a Jerome Randle.
My take: Though I’ll admit I never saw this kid play due to being fully obligated to the Spurs this past lockout season, Holloway has a lot of the physical traits of Eric Bledsoe of the Los Angeles Clippers. The Spurs needed a player like this who could routinely attack the basket and get to the free throw line after the Oklahoma City Thunder made the proper adjustments of limiting Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili’s penetration into the paint.
Unfortunately, I feel Holloway’s size will be his biggest disadvantage of the Spurs not selecting him with their second round 59th pick, because they already have a small guard off the bench in Gary Neal. Neal and Holloway coming off the bench together for the Spurs’ second unit would be a defensive disaster. Though they both could put up points in spurts, defensively it’s too much of a liability.
The NBA draft is just five days away, it’ll be interesting to see who the Spurs select with their 59th pick, or if they try to move up in the draft like they did last year.
What do you think Spurs fans, should the Spurs draft Holloway if he’s available at slot 59?
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