The New Orleans Pelicans are now nearly a year removed from the Jrue Holiday trade, which seems like a good time to look back.
The Pels traded their franchise icon (who I believe should have his number retired) for Eric Bledsoe, two future first-round draft picks and two future draft swaps.
The Pelicans are now sitting on a ton of future draft picks and young talent, but they finished 11th in the Western Conference last season and there is debate about whether they have improved.
Meanwhile, Jrue Holiday and the Milwaukee Bucks won the title, with Holiday making the first team All-Defense and playing a key role in their championship run.
He signed a max extension to stay with the Bucks and there is a strong argument that contract should have been with the New Orleans Pelicans.
New Orleans Pelicans: Jrue Holiday wanted to be traded
It would be unfair to judge the Jrue Holiday trade in a vacuum, as the star guard wanted to be moved to a team that was chasing titles, not the 8th seed.
There is a strong possibility that he wouldn’t have re-signed with the team anyway, so David Griffin didn’t have a whole lot of options other than to trade him.
But after what we saw this year, and the way the roster is constructed now, it would be nice to still have Jrue Holiday as a part of it.
The Pelicans defense is still terrible and they still lack a reliable third scoring option, two areas where Holiday definitely could have helped.
They also lack a veteran leader and could use his voice in the locker room. It’s safe to say that Jrue Holiday is an even better fit now than he was in his final season with the Pelicans, as the Pels are in a better position to compete with a roster more suited for Zion Williamson‘s skills.
Not having Holiday is one thing, but they haven’t done much to replace him ever since he was traded away.
New Orleans Pelicans: Eric Bledsoe was a disaster
There were some fans (including myself for about 5 minutes) who thought the drop off from Jrue Holiday to Eric Bledsoe wouldn’t be that steep.
Boy were we wrong.
We knew that Bledsoe was definitely the lesser player, but he had been an All-Defensive player himself and a guy who was a fairly reliable scoring option in the past.
Those things disappeared quickly in New Orleans, where Bledsoe never had a real role, and never seemed that engaged in finding one.
Both his offense and defense took a step back, and Bledsoe devolved into a guy who mostly stood in the corner and got torched by elite guards.
He was so bad that the Pelicans had to jettison him to the Grizzlies (who sent him to the Clippers) even though he is essentially an expiring contract entering next season.
I do think the Memphis trade looks good for the Pelicans, but would they have been better off just keeping Holiday?
New Orleans Pelicans: Lonzo Ball and draft picks
One of the main reasons the New Orleans Pelicans thought they should move on from Jrue Holiday was Lonzo Ball.
Ball was and up and coming point guard and the idea was that he would flourish once he took over the team in Holiday’s absence.
That never happened and the Pelicans ended up trading Lonzo to the Bulls for practically nothing. I thought Griffin blew it by not trading Lonzo earlier and it looks even worse now.
It’s possible that Lonzo, not Jrue Holiday should have been the one sent away even though he obviously wasn’t going to bring back the same return.
Yes, the Pelicans are now sitting on a pile of draft picks, but unless they are able to turn one or more of those picks into a star player via trade or the draft, they are just unrealized potential.
The business of basketball is tough as you try to balance player’s wishes against what is best for the team, but I really wish the Pels could have found a way to work it out with Holiday, who is pretty much exactly what they need right now.