The Pelicans are turning down all offers for Jrue Holiday, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. There has been speculation that New Orleans might launch a full rebuilding project in the wake of Anthony Davis‘ trade request, but so far the front office hasn’t budged on its plan to keep Holiday.
The 10th-year guard is enjoying his best season since joining the Pelicans six years ago. He is posting career highs with 21.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and his 8.0 assists per night match his career best mark set with Philadelphia in 2012/13, which was his only All-Star season.
Holiday could serve as the cornerstone in New Orleans once Davis is gone. He is signed through the 2020/21 season, making $25,976,111 in each of the next two years, and has a $26.865MM player option for 2021/22. He is the only Pelicans player with a contract that runs past next season.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks suggests there would be “a line of teams outside the Pelicans’ training facility” if Holiday ever became available in trade talks (Twitter link). Marks states Holiday’s combination of production and value put him on a level with Wizards guard Bradley Beal as a trade asset.
That’s kind of foolhardy, but it could still work. If you get a good package of players (ala the young Lakers), you could still have a decent tam with potential.
Personally I would trade Jrue, but I am not running the team.
New Orleans needs a new front office before making trades. I wouldn’t trust the GM to start a rebuild since he had years to build around Davis
He built a fine team at one point. It’s not his fault that Cousins got hurt and then decided to leave.
It is Demps that broke the relationship. Cousins reported he did not get an offer.
It wasn’t Demps, Cousins’s ACL broke that relationship.
Except the fact he tore his achilles not his acl
I realize that, but his ACL had a bad attitude. :)
Maybe more so the fact that NOLA secretly has a problem on its hand called AD’s potential extension with expectations of Thunder-esque payroll around him, and Cousins max contract on top of that makes less sense than taring it down to “rebuild” with more affordable young players.
NOLA trying to make AD look like the villain, when in reality the owners mouth is watering over dumping that contract.
I can’t help but scratch my head every time I hear a story about the things this GM is doing or plans to do. He needs to be realistic and do what’s what best for the team in the long run. Not sure how much longer this guy will have a job at this rate.
All the GM’s except Pelinka are telling Dell Demps to wait until summer, get teams competing against each other, and listen to everyone’s offer first just like Eric Bledsoe, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Kawhi did.
rebuilding with holiday + the celtics assets they’ll be more balanced and could be competing when the warriors become extinct 2-3 yrs
did you just say they could be competing in 2-3 years lol how the Pelicans gone be in the Eastern conference because that’s only how they going to be competing lol
I agree with “Guest617” if they keep Holiday and get Tatum + Brown + 2 1rd Picks (their own lotto plus at least 1 or 2 or more this season and next)… they could be a playoff team in 2 years. That’s a big “If” though as I’m not sure the Celtics are really going to offer BOTH Tatum and Brown. As a Celtics fan I’m even having a hard time stomaching a trade including BOTH guys (and several picks + another young asset or two) because I really believe Tatum is a budding star – but I get how valuable AD is so I’d get over if it that’s what it came to — but if it does, I do agree that with those 3 as the Pelicans core they could be a playoff team.
Now actually “competing” to be a “top” team in the West (or East for that matter) well that would take hitting big time on AT LEAST one of the top picks they’ll have and getting solid value out of ALL of the picks that aren’t immediate studs. It’s a lot of “IF’s” and I actually think they’d be better off going total rebuild and trying to get younger assets for Holiday instead — but with him, I do see how they could become a playoff team more quickly.
It would be foolish to trade before trading AD.
If you are going to rebuild then rebuild with as many assets as you can. If you can get a no-brainer offer for Holiday then you’d have to move him
If Holiday and Davis are so great then why has New Orleans made the playoffs only twice in Davis’s career? The Celtics were terrific last year with the “young assets” and were just fine without moody Irving. As a Celtics fan I’d rather see them continue to construct a team with their own guys and without these prima donna superstars.