Andre Iguodala explains why Jrue Holiday deserves three DPOY awards
Andre Iguodala is convinced Jrue Holiday deserves to have three DPOY awards under his name and that he is still somewhat underappreciated among most NBA fans and the media.
Jrue deserves to have more DPOY awards
In a recent interview for The Athletic, Andre Iguodala talked about his former teammate Jrue Holiday and how he impacts the game by taking on the most challenging defensive assignments upon himself. Jrue has been doing this for the entirety of his career while elevating his game on offense and being one of the crucial players in the Bucks last season's success in winning a championship.
Iguodala firmly believes Holiday should have three DPOY awards because of his consistency on defense throughout his 12-year-long career in the NBA.
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"You can write this down. Jrue Holiday should have three Defensive Player of the Year (awards), and he should be first-team All-Defensive for the last nine years. I don't care. You can ask — who's the best scorer in the league? Who's the most gifted scorer in basketball history?"
Durant always had respect for Jrue Holiday
Iguodala is not the first player to say Jrue Holiday is probably the best perimeter defender in the NBA. We've seen several players recently come out and pay respect for Holiday and his competitiveness on defense. On several occasions, Kevin Durant is one of those players who said Jrue is an absolute menace defensively, causing a lot of problems for anybody he is guarding during the game.
"Ask (Durant) who's the hardest guard — who's the guy who gives him the toughest time? Jrue Holiday is 6-foot-3, and Kevin Durant is 6-10. He's not 6-10 — he's a 7-footer. And Kevin Durant is like, 'Yo, Jrue Holiday is different.' You see what happened (with Team USA) in the Olympics when Jrue Holiday got there? But I'm crazy, right?"
Jrue was often overlooked as a two-player by the media and the casual fans until last year when he was an essential piece for the Bucks on their way to a championship. So far in his career, he's been selected twice on the NBA All-Defensive First Team and once on the NBA All-Defensive Second Team. Iguodala stressed that Jrue deserved more acknowledgment for his defense, and that is definitely true. Luckily fans are now slowly but surely starting to realize how elite a player Holiday is in today's NBA, showcasing absolutely brilliance on both ends of the floor.