Winners and Losers of the Jrue Holiday Trade – CrownHoops
Amidst a chaotic week in the NBA, another blockbuster trade occurred, a trade involving Jrue Holiday. Holiday, who had been in trade talks for seemingly forever, is now headed to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks had to give up a king’s ransom though as they traded Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, and three draft picks. While Holiday is a quality star and arguably the best perimeter defender in the league, it’s still a bit perplexing it took this much draft capital to get a deal for his services done. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the winners and losers of this deal.
Winner: Jrue Holiday
Jrue will finally get to play with a contender. The Bucks seem to be only one piece away and are hoping Holiday can be that missing link to help their dynamic duo in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. It’s hard to believe this pushes the Bucks over the hump, but this will certainly be a better opportunity for Jrue Holiday.
Loser: Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks did get a quality defender in Jrue, however they gave up too much draft capital for an aging second tier star. This is a deal you make for a top 10 or top five player. See the Lakers trading for Anthony Davis last season. If this was Giannis or AD, then it would make sense. However, as great as Holiday is, he is not a top 10 player in the league. The Bucks are gambling here with Giannis entering free agency next summer and if he leaves, Milwaukee will have little to no future in the upcoming drafts.
Winner: New Orleans Pelicans
The New Orleans Pelicans are one of the up and coming young teams in the league. It made sense for them to ship off Holiday and focus on building around Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. Not only did they offload some money giving them cap space to re-sign Ingram, they got future draft picks which gives them house money to play with in terms of building for their bright future. They can use those picks to build around their core as alluded to already, or even use them as trade bait if they want to make another blockbuster trade in the future. Usually, the loser of these deals is the team who loses the best player involved, but this deal is one of the exceptions.
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