2017 NBA free agency grades: Pelicans to re-sign Jrue Holiday

Backed into a corner, the New Orleans Pelicans needed to retain their starting point guard. They did just that by agreeing to overpay for Jrue Holiday.

With Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins in tow, the time for action is now. The New Orleans Pelicans seem to be acting accordingly at the outset of 2017 NBA free agency, especially when it comes to retaining their starting point guard.

According to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Pellies have agreed to pony up the dough for Jrue Holiday, reaching terms on a whopping five-year, $126 million deal, with bonuses that could move the deal up to $150 million.

The fifth year is a player option, per Woj.

New Orleans was sort of backed into a corner on this one. Holiday is a very good point guard, and he had a great season last year, averaging 15.4 points, 7.3 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game on .454/.356/.708 shooting splits. Twelve of the 15 games he missed were to tend to his wife, but when he returned to the court, the Pelicans were a noticeably different team.

However, it’s hard to feel particularly enthusiastic about shelling out at least $25 million a year for a point guard of Holiday’s stature, even if the Pelicans pretty much had to do it.

With a limited amount of cap space and a dynamic frontcourt duo that needs accompanying talent, the Pelicans wouldn’t have been able to find a comparable replacement if Holiday had signed elsewhere. By being able to go over the cap to re-sign Holiday, New Orleans had little choice but meet his demands to retain a player Anthony Davis likes.

Aside from the self-imposed ceiling on this team’s potential at one of the most important positions in the league, there’s also Holiday’s injury history to consider.

He was healthy for pretty much the entire 2016-17 campaign after missing its first 12 games, but the overwhelming body of evidence suggests this kind of massive payday comes with substantial risk.

In 2015-16, the 27-year-old missed 17 games and was limited to 28.2 minutes per game, playing on a minutes restriction off the bench for most of the season. The year before, he missed 42 games. The year before that, he missed 48 games.

All in all, Holiday has only reached the 70-game threshold in three of his eight NBA seasons, and those all came in his first four years in the league. With this deal paying him through at least his age-31 season, locking him down to this kind of money could very easily come back to haunt New Orleans.

Boogie and the Brow are a great foundation, and it will be interesting to see how the two mesh during a full season together. With Cousins set to join free agency next summer, the pressure is on for this front office to quickly assemble talent and keep this frontcourt tandem together for the long haul.

Unfortunately, New Orleans’ plan for doing so is hindered not only by the sheer mass of this deal, but also by their limited scope beyond re-signing Holiday.

The Pelicans were never going to be able to afford an upgrade like Kyle Lowry or George Hill, and short of miraculously stringing together a trade for someone like Eric Bledsoe, this is probably as good as they were going to do. He’s certainly not a bad point guard; he competes on both ends of the floor, doesn’t require too many touches and can facilitate to his two star offensive weapons.

However, it cannot be ignored that Holiday is relatively average in a league where talent at that position is absolutely stacked. Can you win a championship with Jrue Holiday as your starting point guard?

Next: 2017 NBA free agency tracker - Grades for every deal so far

Having Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins on the roster certainly helps, and this re-signing was a necessary evil, but it comes with a fair amount of risk for a player who can only do so much to elevate their hopes of contending in the near future.

Grade: B-