San Antonio Spurs: 5 PG options in free agency for Tony Parker successor

5. Jrue Holiday

The New Orleans Pelicans have the inside track to re-signing Jrue Holiday if they so choose, and if keeping Anthony Davis happy is priority No. 1, his comments to ESPN‘s Zach Lowe about convincing Holiday to stay in the Crescent City are telling.

However, WDSU’s Fletcher Mackel reports that Holiday intends to test the free agency waters, and that the Pelicans are “unhappy” about the whole situation — which makes sense, since a potential five-year, $172 million max for Holiday would be a lot for a good but not great point guard of his status.

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As is the case with every free agent point guard on this list, the Spurs would also have to sacrifice quite a bit of bench depth to make this happen, since Holiday could be eligible for a four-year, $137 million deal from an outside suitor.

Now, Holiday can hardly be expected to actually command that kind of money. Mackel speculates that an extension for Holiday might come in around $100-110 million over five years, so another team could conceivably steal him away for four years and $80-100 million.

Still though, even a deal in that range would require some financial finagling for the Spurs’ cap situation. Is he really worth it considering his Per 36 Minutes numbers aren’t a far cry from Patty Mills, the incumbent candidate to replace Parker?

To be fair, Holiday would be a nice fit with this Spurs team. He shot 53.4 percent on drives, good for the fourth-best percentage among all starting point guards, per NBA.com. That alone would make him a fine addition to this offense and take some pressure off Kawhi.

Holiday is also a solid defender, which would be important for the NBA’s top-ranked defense this season.

So what would it take to be able to afford him in free agency? For Holiday (or anyone on this list), it starts and ends with Pau Gasol opting out of the final year of his contract worth $16.2 million.

If he opts in — which should be expected considering his age and diminishing market value — the Spurs would immediately need to pivot and find a trade for the 36-year-old big man without taking back any salary. They’d also need to (secretly) hope Manu Ginobili retires to get his $21 million cap hold off the books, plus renounce the rights to restricted free agent Jonathon Simmons and unrestricted free agent Patty Mills.

That would get the Spurs down to around $81 million with the cap set at $101 million, meaning Dewayne Dedmon (player option) and David Lee (player option) could be roster casualties as well, considering they can opt out and enjoy a pay raise elsewhere — and all this is assuming a four-year, $80 million deal would actually do the trick for Holiday.

So in order to clear room for a point guard who averaged 15.4 points, 7.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game on mundane .454/.356/.708 shooting splits this season, the Spurs would likely have to move Gasol after he opts in or hope he’s willing to take a significant pay cut to stay with the team; renounce Mills and possibly Simmons; hope Manu officially retires; and probably let Lee and Dedmon walk in free agency.

That’s quite a bit of depth to give up from a 61-win team for a marginal upgrade like Holiday. Though he’s only 26 years old and played well for the Pelicans this year, he has a history of injury problems and cost-cutting sacrifices like this should really only be made for a potential star addition.

Holiday is only a slight upgrade from Patty Mills with the financial ramifications in mind, and should be viewed as such.