Milwaukee Bucks: Revisiting Jrue Holiday’s reputable 2020-21 goals

It goes without saying that Jrue Holiday’s first season with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2020-21 was a massive success.

After having traded a significant haul for the guard during the 2020 offseason, the Bucks made it crystal clear that they believed Holiday would be the missing piece to their title aspirations after years of coming up short. Ultimately, that came to fruition as Holiday’s efforts helped the Bucks plow through the postseason and hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time in 50 seasons. Before he took the court in Milwaukee, we assessed Holiday these three goals, and it is time to see if he hit the mark during the 2020-21 season.

Revisiting Jrue Holiday’s 2020-21 goals with the Milwaukee Bucks: No. 3 – Provide a secondary playmaker

Holiday’s pristine playmaking and facilitating were among the many reasons why the Bucks were so persistent in trying to bring him in. As evidenced by their previous string of playoff failures, the Bucks needed someone who could orchestrate the offense and take on extra ball-handling duties when Giannis Antetokounmpo needed a breather. Thankfully, Holiday proved to be just that.

In fact, Holiday led the team this season with 6.1 assists per game, just ahead of Antetokounmpo, who boasted 5.9 on average. Having quickly earned the trust of head coach Mike Budenholzer, the guard saw significant time with the basketball in his hands as the Bucks consistently tweaked the offense throughout the regular season and tried new things. Having a reliable ball-handler in the backcourt like Holiday made that process far easier for the Bucks. While there were initially some growing pains, that was expected as Holiday was trying to get accustomed to his new team.

Those pains helped Holiday prepare for the team’s postseason run, where he was fantastic as he took on ball-handling duties consistently. The Bucks put the ball in his hands often, which helped him lead the team in assists with an eye-catching 8.7 on average across 23 games. It does not get much better than that when it comes to facilitating. While there were some questions coming in as to whether or not Holiday could provide the necessary playmaking for this team, he silenced them throughout the playoffs.