Each NBA team’s best trade in franchise history

New Orleans Pelicans

Jrue Holiday and Pierre Jackson for Nerlens Noel and a first-round pick to PHI (2013)

As of 2018, Jrue Holiday has made only one All-Star team; that selection came in 2013-14 with the Philadelphia 76ers. His numbers that year were respectable — he averaged 17.7 points and 8.0 assists, though his .055 WS/48 painted a bleaker picture of his productivity — but general manager Sam Hinkie, who was in “the process” of retooling the mediocre team he was put in charge of, decided to strike while Holiday’s value was at its highest and turned his star point guard into draft capital.

During the 2013 draft, he found a willing partner in the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans, who used the sixth overall pick to take University of Kentucky rim-roller Nerlens Noel, sent their new big man to Philly along with another first-round pick (the Sixers used that pick to select Elfrid Payton, who they immediately traded to the Orlando Magic) for Holiday and Pierre Jackson.

Jackson never played for the Pelicans, but Holiday became a fixture in the New Orleans lineup alongside generational big man Anthony Davis. Though he struggled to stay in the lineup early in his New Orleans tenure — which surely had nothing to do with the team’s then-sketchy medical staff — Holiday matured into one of the league’s unsung two-way wings.

Through six seasons, Holiday produced .100 WS/48, with 10.4 of his 24.6 WS coming on the defensive end.