Mostly positive reviews for Sixers' rookie Holiday in Orlando Summer League

Second-year forward/center Marreese Speights led all scorers with 28 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in a 75-67 overtime loss to the Pacers' squad in the first game of the Orlando Summer League.

Holiday, the 17th pick of last month's NBA draft, exited the game with his bosses beaming. Speights' performance was not viewed as kindly.

"We like Jrue Holiday," said new coach Eddie Jordan, who watched the combined Sixers/Nets team from behind the bench as Nets and Sixers assistants coached the players. "There's no fear . . . He's got a lot of point-guard mentality. A lot of point-guard personality."

Really, there was plenty of promise with which to be pleased.

Holiday generally handled the ball well under pressure. He consistently got the team into the offense in a timely fashion. He clearly has an understanding of the hybrid offense the Nets/Sixers squad ran, which incorporates some of the Princeton style Jordan will implement.

But the mistakes? The rust?

"That's going to happen," Jordan said. "You come up here in the summer league, you're playing guys from the [developmental] league, playing against some veterans, you're going to turn the ball over. You're going to have some breakdowns. That wasn't a concern."

Holiday, who turned 19 only last month, played the NBA-mandated 1 year at UCLA at shooting guard. Not playing the point in college would explain why he might be rusty.

Sixers president/general manager Ed Stefanski attributed Holiday's spotty play as much to fatigue as anything. Holiday dribbled the ball away near the end of regulation and near the end of the 3-minute overtime period.

"I thought he played well in spurts," Stefanski said. "I thought he got tired. Down toward the end, I thought he made some poor decisions because he got tired. You've got to learn how to play through this situation."

"It's a learning experience. I blame it on myself," Holiday said. "My first pro game. I'm happy."

Yesterday might have mattered less if the Sixers had a frontline point guard. They remain hopeful of re-signing free agent Andre Miller. They had fruitless talks with Mike Bibby.

If Holiday had that sort of lead to follow, it would make his performance here less magnified.

"Ifs" don't matter.

For instance, if Speights had played better defense, rebounded harder and executed sharper as a rookie last season, not only would he be less harshly judged now, he probably wouldn't be here at all.

The 16th pick from last year's draft after one season at Florida, Speights was not graded on Holiday's curve.

"He made shots. We'd still like to see him execute a little better," Jordan said. "There were some breakdowns where he should have done some things, executionwise, on both ends. Stats don't mean a whole lot. He might have had 28, but he probably could have had 20 and given his teammates 10 points along the line."

Speights made 11 of 26 shots, but those 26 shots were more than twice as many as any teammate, and his matchups - gangly center Roy Hibbert or smaller rookie Tyler Hansbrough - were to Speights' advantage. He even launched a couple of failed three-pointers, to Jordan's dismay.