New Orleans Pelicans say they don’t want to trade Jrue Holiday, but have options if they do
By Phil Watson
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are inching close to the tax apron — not a deal-breaker for the club, which has no restrictions on going over the line — with just $2.74 million remaining under the barrier, per Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights.
But because Milwaukee is already over the cap, there are limits to how a trade for Holiday could be structured, particularly the need to somewhat balance the salaries going the other direction.
Holiday is 29 years old and in his 11th NBA season, averaging 19.4 points, 6.6 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 36.0 minutes per game this year on 43.8 percent shooting, hitting 34.2 percent on 5.4 3-point attempts a game. His foul shooting is at a career-worst 67.9 percent on just 2.9 attempts per game, down from 4.0 last season.
He re-signed with the New Orleans Pelicans as an unrestricted free agent in July 2017, a contract that still has three seasons and roughly $70 million remaining. That includes the approximately $16.89 million still remaining of this season’s $26.13 million and the player option in 2021-22 at $27.02 million.
Getting the salaries to jive without giving up a key piece of the championship chase could be problematic for Milwaukee. If the Bucks were to gut their depth, they could include Wesley Matthews ($2.56 million), Dragan Bender (non-guaranteed $1.68 million) and D.J. Wilson ($2.96 million), but would still be well short of what they need to get the deal done.
To do that, Milwaukee would have to include Eric Bledsoe ($15.63 million), but neither Matthews nor Bledsoe fits New Orleans’ projected timeline. They would be looking to get younger/accumulate assets, not take on veterans. It also wouldn’t make a lot of sense to trade two guards for one if you’re trying to accentuate your depth.
When looking at this trade at TradeNBA, it estimates the Bucks would get worse by four wins with such a deal and we haven’t even looked at draft assets Milwaukee might have to move.