By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

“He will be a top five point guard in the league.” — Doug Collins on Sixers point guard Jrue Holiday prior to the season.

In the early going, especially during the preseason, nobody knew if Collins had a clue about his second year guard from UCLA. Apparently, all we needed to do was give the youngster some time to adapt to the Sixers style this year and the lineup he was playing with.

With the way Jrue Holiday continues to improve, Sixers-Celtics games could be great point guard battles for the foreseeable future.

Holiday is coming off two straight double-doubles and looks better and more comfortable each night. He dropped 11 points in Friday’s loss to the Mavs, but what should give the Sixers brass and fanbase hope is the most important stat for a point guard — assists. The 6-4 guard dished out a baker’s dozen on Friday, following up an 11 assist performance against the Thunder on Wednesday. Granted, both games were losses, but you have to look for young guys who can lead this franchise going forward.

Young could very well be the star the Sixers have been searching for since Allen Iverson was traded to Denver. Granted, young will not be able to do it alone and will need guys such as Evan Turner to develop into pure scorers in the NBA who can turn his passes into dimes.

Still, Holiday is averaging nearly 17 points and ten assists this month. By comparison, Rajon Rondo averaged five dimes and eight points in November of his second season. Is Holiday a future Rondo? We won’t say that … yet. Rondo is an amazing talent who can find open guys on the fly. Of course, playing with Garnett, Allen and Pierce gives him plenty of options. If Turner and Iguodala can turn into those kinds of guys, maybe the Sixers finally have a young nucelus to build around.