Should the New Orleans Pelicans Start Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans?

The New Orleans Pelicans have had a point guard predicament on their hands the last few seasons.

The majority of basketball fans want their point guards to play a certain way, the way that lead guards were in the 1990’s; someone who brings the ball up the floor, passes it to the best player, and then stands and watch. In today’s game, however, things have changed. There are still the facilitate first point guards around, but the majority of lead guards in the league are attack first. In fact, the MVP of the NBA last season was a score first point guard in Stephen Curry.

The New Orleans Pelicans have two of those players on their team in attack-first point guard Tyreke Evans and pass-first point guard Jrue Holiday. Both came to the team at similar times; Holiday coming via trade in 2013 on draft night and Evans arrived in a sign-and-trade with the Sacramento Kings mere weeks after. It was an interesting sequence of events to say the least.

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Holiday had just signed an extension with the Philadelphia 76ers and was traded right before the first year of that extension kicked in. He made the All-Star team with the Sixers that season and was traded in a deal that included two first round picks from the Pelicans. Holiday was assumed to be the starting point guard, which made it weird that New Orleans would go and sign another ball dominant guard in Tyreke Evans, whose best season came when he started at point guard while winning rookie of the year in Sacramento.

Most people would look at this situation and think that the two players can’t co-exist; there should only be one lead ball handler and they will just get in the way of each other. On the contrary, both Evans and Holiday were able to co-exist quite nicely together last season. When both point guards shared the floor together, they were a positive +2.4, according to NBA.com. For comparison, John Wall and Paul Pierce had a similar +/- when they were on the floor at the same time last season.

Schematically, it makes sense as well. We all know that Tyreke loves to attack the paint and have the ball in his hands a lot, with more than half his shots coming off of 3 or more dribbles and leading the entire NBA in drives last season. The nice thing about Tyreke is that he is also a willing passer, ranking in the top ten in the league in total assists last season, averaging 6.6 per game. Having a player that can drive and attack off the pick-and-roll and then dish to guys like Anthony Davis rolling or shooters on the outside spotting up is going to be perfect for new head coach Alvin Gentry’s offense.

Tyreke is also awesome at abusing mismatches when teams switch. This can also come in handy when distributing. Breaking down the defense without any help is the type of thing that can win you a game and win you a playoff series. With how often and successful the Golden State Warriors were at recognizing mismatches, you can bet that Gentry will bring that and utilize it with Evans’ game.

What does this mean for Jrue Holiday, who is his own right has always had the ball in his hands and played the point guard role? After all, didn’t he make the All-Star team playing point guard for the Sixers?

Well for one, Holiday doesn’t have the best track record of health. In his two seasons in New Orleans, Jrue has only played in 74 of a possible 164 games. It might be better for him health wise if he didn’t have to play in a high usage role as the starting lead ball handler. If his minutes are going to be limited and he is going to be playing more with bench units, he will be able to get some run at point guard.

Jrue is also a capable off ball threat as well. He is a career 37.6% three point shooter, coming close to breaking the 40% threshold multiple times throughout his career. He could be one of the players that spots up for a three around Tyreke Evans’ penetration.

It is also nice to have another player who can create in a secondary role. When a defense bends one way towards the main action and the ball is swung, having another player who can attack and get the defense even more on their heels to create an even more open opportunity is what makes teams elite. Having both Holiday and Evans out there gives New Orleans that type of versatility and threat.

Defensively, things could get quite a bit trickier, seeing as both guys are probably used to guarding point guards. Assuming that Eric Gordon is also going to start, Gordon doesn’t have the size to guard small forwards, and he can’t stick with point guards either. Evans doesn’t have the attention and IQ to guard wings off the ball, so that leaves Holiday to guard opposing small forwards. The good thing with this is that despite being just 6’4″ and only having a modest 6’7″ wingspan, Holiday has the instincts and angles to guard opposing wings, doing well at anticipating where their movements are going to be.

The obvious questions that come are with Holiday’s health, Evans’ overall decision-making, and how the trio of Evans/Holiday/Gordon can hold up defensively. We’ve seen that with their lack of depth and perimeter shooting, however, that this might be their best chance at generating consistent, high-level offense. I’m sure that Gentry and his staff will take a long hard look at this and consider starting the point guard duo.

Next: Jrue's Prototypical Play

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