Defending the Holiday Trade

From The Bird Writes. Just because . . . why not?

"Holiday ranks right in the middle of Tier 2 -- borderline All-Stars that could make the Game in any given year and that, in a good year, could be the 3rd or 2nd best players on legitimate contenders. We can debate endlessly as to where guys rank within that tier, based on defensive contribution, shooting ability, shot creation volume, etc., but a lot of those individual rankings will ultimately depend on what each specific team is in search of. A team built on strong, pressing perimeter defense isn't likely to value Goran Dragic as highly as, say, Kyle Lowry, while a team that requires an ace 3-point shooter at lead guard isn't likely to value Kyle Lowry as highly as Jrue Holiday. It's all relative.

What can be instructive though is determining how often a player of this tier becomes available. In terms of just dollars and years, you'd be hard-pressed to make a case that Holiday is not worth his contract. He absolutely is, and one look at the above should settle that easily. Importantly though, the team gave up a #6 (Nerlens Noel) and #10 (Dario Saric?) for his services. Whether that was worth it is just as important a question as whether his contract is a good one.

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New Orleans ultimately paid more than other teams have paid to acquire players of Jrue Holiday's caliber. The more important bottom line though is that four teams (four teams!) have acquired Holiday-level or better players either in free agency or via trade in the current age of point guards (Paul, Williams, Dragic, Lowry). They're rare. One became available last summer, and the Pelicans moved quickly."


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