Jrue Holiday: Too valuable for New Orleans Pelicans to find fair trade

Is Jrue Holiday worth his contract? Who else could provide the same value for the New Orleans Pelicans franchise going forward?

While emotional connections and sentimental values do have their place in some decisions, finances are cold. Financial values have to be analysed without emotional connections. Emotionally, Holiday is the most valuable current Pelicans.

Financially, Jrue has such value that any trade haul would have to exceed whatever Davis brought back to New Orleans. Anthony Davis has one year left and has shown his disgruntled Looney Tunes-styled cards. Holiday has multiple seasons left on his contract.

Jrue has also been nothing but enthusiastic about the team’s future in interviews, and would be harder to replace in the lineup than Davis. The city has embraced Holiday in a way most NBA players will never experience. Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and Jrue Holiday are in rare air when is comes to fan support, but let’s not digress. With little emotion, let’s look at the finances.

Jrue Holiday is on contract through the end of the 2021-2022 season. He is due $26.7 million in 2019-2020, only $25.976 million the next season, and has a $26.9 million player option the last year of the deal. Holiday had the leverage to demand the maximum allowed salary, stretching $131 million over five years. The Pelicans were going all in on the #DoItBig era, so retaining Holiday was critical.

Holiday is the 24th highest paid NBA player according to Business Insider. Basketball Reference has Jrue at 20th in overall guaranteed money from this season forward, and the 18th highest paid this season. The list of higher paid guys includes a list of stars, aging players on big deals, and “potential” being paid in the present.

Let’s divide the players and see where Holiday stands. Making any NBA tiers of comparison brings some emotion back into the argument, but the comparisons are generalized enough for the financial premise. Comparing Holiday’s cap hit, usage, age, and other variables to the players paid more than him shows that Jrue is probably the best possible option for the Pelicans in the near future.

Some players are almost bigger than the game. Any trade where your team receives an MVP candidate in their prime must be seriously considered. However, no one expects LeBron James (4 years/$153.3m) to ask out of Los Angeles soon. Klutch Sports created this mess to break up New Orleans, not join up here.

James Harden (4 years/$118.m) is not bigger than the game, but has inspired plenty of comments claiming he has broken it. Any trade where Holiday and Harden swapped teams would break the league fax machine. Sure, almost any plausible Harden/Holiday swap that met trade requirements would be tough to turn down. Same goes for Steph Curry (5 years/$201.2m).

Kevin Durant (2 years/$61.5 million) will be a free agent this summer. The Pelicans are splurging on an expanded front office, but trips to the Hamptons would be burning money for a burner account comment at best.

The Pelicans are not looking to waste money on a vanity project. The Warriors have a championship foundation whereas the Pelicans are trying to build one. Jrue Holiday is invaluable to what Griffin is crafting in New Orleans. If Griffin entertains any trade for Holiday, it must be for a package greater than or equal to any Davis haul.

Holiday has won our hearts, and the head sees the numbers suggest a winning contract situation for both sides. Trading Holiday risks not only losing games, but also fans and a favorable contract.