New Orleans Pelicans: A crazy three-team trade with Jrue Holiday

This deal makes the New Orleans Pelicans ready to compete now by adding two high caliber players in Marcus Smart and Myles Turner

Does this deal classify as the Pelicans becoming a superteam? I don’t know about that but it’s pretty close. In this deal, the Pelicans would move Jrue Holiday and end up getting both Marcus Smart and Myles Turner who both could be huge in turning this team into a contender.

Adding Marcus Smart is essentially adding A Jrue Holiday who is in his prime but with a little less talent. A streaky offensive player, Smart could be someone that becomes the leader of the Pelicans though while providing grit, and taking on the toughest defensive assignments. Having both Smart and Lonzo Ball in the backcourt, that would be killer.

Then there’s Myles Turner who’s an excellent shot-blocker and reliable 3 point shooter. Add him to the New Orleans Pelicans frontcourt, and as I wrote before, it’ll make Stan Van Gundy’s system work like magic. A starting five of Lonzo Ball, Marcus Smart, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and Myles Turner easily becomes one of the best in the NBA on paper.

So could this trade actually happen? That’s where things get rough. It feels like in this deal the New Orleans Pelicans make out better than the two other teams and become a serious threat in the NBA. I doubt the Celtics or the Pacers would like to see that happen.

I do think that this could be the foundation of a trade though, maybe the other two teams can take some draft capital and young players from the Pelicans too and that’ll balance out the value. Regardless, I think a deal like this even potentially being possible shows that trading Jrue Holiday is a good thing for the franchise and opens up the Pelicans to being a deadlier team in 2021. That’s something to think about.