JRUE Holiday

Last season Holiday played 53 games for Portland and averaged 29.4 minutes. He put up 16.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.0 steal a game. He shot 45.1 percent from the field, 37.8 percent from three and 83.8 percent from the line, good for a 57.3 true shooting percentage. His usage was 22.7 percent, and his plus-minus was 3.7. Those are the numbers of a two-way guard who still makes the team better when he is on the floor. He turned the ball over 2.8 times a game and blocked 0.1 shots. The 53 games is the line to watch. Availability, not production, was the issue last season.

Holiday played two preseason games and the Blazers won both. On October 7 against Golden State he had 5 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists in 19.2 minutes with a plus-minus of 5.0. On October 13 against Sacramento he scored 11 points with 5 rebounds and 2 assists in 20.9 minutes and finished at plus 16.0. Neither night was about scoring. Both were about controlling the game in limited time, which is how Portland wants to use him in October. He then hit the injury report four days after the Sacramento game and did not appear in another preseason box score.

Holiday's last meaningful games came in a first-round series against San Antonio last spring. Portland won Game 1 on April 19 by way of his 9 points and 11 assists, then lost on April 21 despite his 16 points and 9 assists. Wait, that order is reversed: the April 19 game was a loss and the April 21 game, a 16-point, 9-assist night, was the win at plus 12.0. He scored 29 with 6 rebounds and 5 assists in a loss on April 24, 20 points in a loss on April 26, and 8 points with 7 assists in the April 28 loss that ended the series. His minutes ran from 35.6 to 40.5 across the five games.

On September 9, Barry Jackson's Heat Notes mentioned Holiday alongside Irving, Wiggins and Thompson in a piece about Miami's roster flexibility and Larsson. That is the only rumor attached to his name entering the season. It was a notes column, not a report of talks, and nothing came of it before camp. Holiday is on Portland's roster, wearing number 5, and cleared to play. If the Heat angle resurfaces, it will be because Miami is looking for a veteran guard, not because Portland has signaled anything. For now he is a Blazer, and the rumor should be read as Jackson reported it: a name on a list.

Holiday is a 6-4, 220-pound guard out of UCLA, 36 years old and entering his 17th season. He wears number 5 for Portland. The role is the same one he filled last season: a lead guard who defends, distributes and shoots well enough to space the floor at 37.8 percent from three. His 1.0 steal a game and 3.7 plus-minus last season show the defensive value that does not show up in a scoring line. The open question is games played. He appeared in 53 last season. If he clears 53 this time, Portland's backcourt is in a better place than it was a year ago.