New Orleans Pelicans

Gentry: Jrue Holiday 'can be right in that category' with Stephen Curry

Published Oct. 7, 2015 5:53 p.m. ET

foxsports

Stephen Curry won the league's MVP award last season, and Alvin Gentry, then an assistant coach in Golden State, had a front row seat to witness Curry's brilliance.

Now the head coach in New Orleans, Gentry has been impressed with Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday during training camp's early days, and believes he has the chance to one day reach Curry's extremely high level of performance.

The last time Holiday played anywhere close to a full season, he averaged 17.7 points and eight assists while making the All-Star team back in 2013 with the Sixers.

Holiday's problem isn't a lack of talent, it's been an inability to remain healthy -- he's missed a total of 90 games over the past two years. A comparison to Curry seems slightly ridiculous at this stage of things, but perhaps Gentry is simply doing what he can to motivate his starting point guard to work as hard as possible.

"I think he has a really good understanding of the tempo we need to play at,'' Gentry said. ''He can run a team and also dribble penetrate. He can score at the rim. He is a really good player with good size and strength.

''I've been around a lot of good point guards the last three years - Steve nash, Chris Paul, and obviously Steph Curry - I think he can be right in that category. When he's healthy, he's already proven he can be an all star guard. So our whole goal is to keep him healthy.''