New Orleans Pelicans: Atlanta Might be the Best Landing Spot for Holiday

If the New Orleans Pelicans trade Jrue Holiday, Atlanta could be a good partner.

The New Orleans Pelicans‘ offseason will be dominated by Jrue Holiday rumors, that much we know.

The Pels have shopped Holiday in the past, but have given no indication that they have immediate plans to move on from the talented guard.

Holiday is usually mentioned in rumors to playoff teams who are one or two pieces away from being contenders. This makes sense, as Holiday would be the perfect third piece on a team like the Bucks, Lakers or Heat and would instantly bolster their title chances.

Another option would be to trade Jrue Holiday to a young, up and coming team with cap space. There are a handful of teams that meet this criteria, as the Hornets, Pistons and Hawks will all have ample cap space to absorb a big contract in a trade.

Of the three teams, Atlanta seems like the most likely trade partner, as they have the combination of players and draft assets that the New Orleans Pelicans would likely require in any trade for Jrue Holiday.

New Orleans Pelicans: Trading Jrue Holiday to the Hawks makes sense.

The Atlanta Hawks have a promising young core of Trae Young, De’Andre Hunter, Cam Reddish and John Collins locked up for the foreseeable future.

With Jeff Teague coming off the books, the Hawks will be in the market for a guard, preferably one who can play defense, as Trae Young is a poor defender who needs the help.

Enter Jrue Holiday.

Plugging Holiday into that lineup would make the Hawks players in the Eastern Conference and give them a nice mix of young talent and proven veterans.

But what could the Pelicans get back?

In this trade the Pelicans would get a serviceable big in Dewayne Dedmon to replace Derrick Favors, a young, elite shooter in Kevin Huerter and the 6th pick in the 2020 draft, which they could use to grab another potential impact talent.

This would also free up cap space that the Pels could use to re-sign Josh Hart or another future free agent. Huerter could replace J.J. Redick, giving the Pels another potential trade piece to grab assets.

The Pels would almost certainly prefer De’Andre Hunter over Dedmon, but Atlanta might view that as too damaging to their future core.

The Pelicans will have a lot of options if they do decide to trade Jrue Holiday, including finding a team with cap space to absorb his contract so that they don’t have to take back any big money.

It’s going to be an offseason full of rumors involving the New Orleans Pelicans and Jrue Holiday, and Atlanta will be on the list of potential partners.