New Orleans Pelicans: Jrue Holiday Should Move to the Bench

Jrue Holiday Should Move to the New Orleans Pelicans’ Bench

While there is solid evidence for keeping the status quo, the numbers say it might be time to move Jrue Holiday to the bench. Let’s start with some qualitative reasons, then look at the stats.

It’s not who starts the game, it’s who finishes…

This is one of the oldest clichés in basketball, but it is true.

Fans often make too much over who starts games and ignore the fact that lineups are fluid and starters may not end up finishing the game.

Take Manu Ginobili, a guy who rarely started for the San Antonio Spurs, but was always part of their crunch-time lineup.

Holiday will still be finishing games whether he starts or not.

Developing NAW

We wrote that Nickeil Alexander-Walker is primed to make a big leap next season and one way to jump-start this is to put him in the starting lineup.

This would not only build his confidence, but playing with the first unit would remove a lot of the pressure NAW might feel to be the primary bench scorer.

With Zion, Lonzo and Ingram on the floor, NAW is certain to get more open looks than if he is playing only with the bench unit, which lacks playmakers.

Alexander-Walker is on a team-friendly contract that runs through 2022-23, so he is part of the future one way or another. If he can produce big in his second season, the New Orleans Pelicans will be a deeper, better team.

Putting him in the starting five kicks off this progression.

The stats don’t lie, the Pelicans’ bench stinks.

The most compelling reason to move Holiday to the bench is that the New Orleans Pelicans’ bench unit is the weakness of the team.

While their starters are outscoring opponents and building big leads, the bench is getting killed and giving them up.

Let’s just take a look at where the New Orleans Pelicans rank in important bench statistics:

-Bench minutes: 19th in the NBA

-Bench points:15th

-Bench FG%: 19th

-Bench 3-point%: 13th

-Bench Assists: 22nd

-Bench Turnovers: 18th

-Bench +/-: 24th

This is a unit that can’t score or make plays, turns the ball over way too much and has a negative plus/minus that ranks 24th in the NBA.

The bench has some streaky shooters in Josh Hart and Nicolo Melli, an athletic rim-runner in Jaxson Hayes and sharpshooter J.J. Redick, but has no table-setter, no one to make plays.

Holiday would instantly add an injection of playmaking to improve the bench’s 22nd ranking in assists and the 3-point percentage is bound to go up with Holiday getting Melli, Redick and Hart more open looks.

Most of the New Orleans Pelicans’ bench is made up of spot-up shooters, not guys who can get their own shots or create for others.

This weakness is a big part of why the Pelicans were unable to close out games or hold onto big leads.

This need could certainly be addressed with a veteran back up point guard or a young player in the draft, but moving Holiday to the bench might be the easiest, most sensible move.

The New Orleans Pelicans must improve their bench play if they want to join the NBA’s elite, so some re-shuffling may be in order.

Thanks for reading and stay safe out there!