Holiday looking to stay in New Orleans on max contract:
Sources say Jrue Holiday staying in New Orleans is all but certain. The craziest part of all is they plan on giving Holiday a 5 year/170 million dollar max contract. If this goes through the first day Free Agency begins, it’ll be a very poor decision and a desperate move by the Pelicans. The free agent madness is just getting started.
This move would significantly hurt any chance the Pelicans have of improving their bench role players, which the Golden State Warriors have showed is critical to success in this league. Current bench players for the Pelicans include E’Twaun Moore, Omer Asik, Quincy Poindexter, and Alexis Ajinca. Yes, the Pelicans would have a core of Holiday, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins, but how far will those players alone take this team?
Holiday, Davis and Cousins alone will account for roughly $70.8M of the allotted cap space of $99M. It’s yet to be seen if Holiday will get the max or not, but this move would blow my mind from a team perspective.
Last season, Holiday played 67 games in which he averaged 15.4 points, 7.3 assists, and 3.9 rebounds. He missed 12 games to start the season due to health issues surrounding his wife. Holiday shot just 35.6% from three, and 45% overall from the field last year. He also had trouble keeping control of the ball ending up with almost three turnovers a game.
To continue, Holiday hasn’t proved he can stay on the court. The previous three seasons prior to last year, he’s played 34, 40, and 65 games respectively. The Pelicans would love to see him play 70-75 games this upcoming season.
I’m not saying he’s a bad player at all, but wouldn’t it make more sense to sign a lesser known veteran point guard and save money for the rest of the roster? The likes of Jeff Teague, George Hill, or even Patty Mills would suffice for this Pelicans team. All of which would come much cheaper than Holiday at $34M per year. My reasoning being that this move could make money tight for rounding out the roster.
If the Pelicans end up signing Holiday somewhere in the $130M range, I think it definitely hurts their playoff chances for next year. Remember this team finished last season 34-48. Does having DeMarcus Cousins for a full season along with much of the same roster make them a contender for the 8th seed in the western conference?
