Zach Lowe's Most intriguing players this season: Jrue Holiday

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JRUE HOLIDAY, NEW ORLEANS PELICANS

So, umm, did the Pelicans -- with DeMarcus Cousins' free agency looming and limited paths to upgrade if he leaves -- just give Jrue Holiday $26 million per year to be an average spot-up shooter next to Rajon Rondo and two All-Star bigs?

They concluded Holiday just works better as a secondary ball handler, a role he has played next to Tyreke Evans, Tim Frazier, and others over four strange years in New Orleans. "I honestly don't think it changes much for me," Holiday told ESPN.com. "Rondo makes scoring so much easier."

The team worried about Holiday's court vision and shot selection as the undisputed floor general. "The fit with Rondo is going to be much, much better for him," Alvin Gentry, the Pelicans' head coach, told ESPN.com. "Anyone who doubts the value of Rondo just has to look at the playoffs last year. [The Bulls] dominated with him against Boston."

Holiday is a 36 percent career shooter from deep, and right around that number on the catch-and-shoot attempts he should get more of in his new role -- decent, but far below sharpshooter status. Nobody is afraid of Holiday letting fly.

At this salary, Holiday has to do more than stand and wait -- not easy alongside three dudes who need the ball. Gentry wants Cousins and Anthony Davis to push after rebounds, so that Holiday can run the wing, catch at full speed, and slice into a backpedaling defense.

Things will get dicier in the half court given the Pellies' shaky outside shooting. Cousins and Davis are skilled playmakers, and Cousins has reinvented himself as an above-average 3-point shooter. (The same reinvention has not happened for Davis.) But there is always a tradeoff having your behemoth banger chilling 30 feet from the hoop, and defenses don't hug up on Cousins out there.

The fifth starting spot at small forward is open, and Gentry might rotate players based on matchups, he said. The bet here is on Dante Cunningham, who shot 39 percent from deep last season -- an outlier mark that won't make opponents pay him any mind.

Gentry and his staff have to get creative. They hired Chris Finch away from Denver, and plan to mimic how the Nuggets ran their offense through Nikola Jokic. Cousins and Davis will handle the ball up high, while the other four players screen for one another. Gentry might even stick one of the bigs in the corner in Rick Adelman-style sets, and have Holiday screen for him there. "Deal with that," Gentry said.

Holiday will snare dribble handoffs at the elbows, and attack scrambled defenses when Rondo kicks him the ball after a pick-and-roll. He has spent this summer working on quick catch-and-drive attacks. "I am locked in on off-ball actions," Holiday said. He is in shape after his first summer of health and peace in years.

But he's undersized at the wing, and he's not a blow-by athlete anymore. He might find himself taking tough shots over bigger defenders.

He'll have to guard those same players at times. Gentry plans to use three-guard lineups featuring any of Rondo, Holiday, E'Twaun Moore, and Ian Clark, and he will ask Holiday to defend bigger wings. "The Paul Georges and Kevin Durants -- we're going to ask Jrue to guard those guys," Gentry said.

The Pelicans have the talent to make noise. Core Boogie-Davis lineups trended up on offense after a brutal start; the Pelicans ended up outscoring opponents by three points per 100 possessions with Cousins, Davis, and Holiday on the floor. The sheer amount of IQ and craft flowing from Cousins and Davis is overwhelming.

But these guys have a lot to figure out, fast, and the wing rotation is the bad kind of scary. They are going to need a monster year from Holiday.

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