New Orleans Pelicans say they don’t want to trade Jrue Holiday, but have options if they do

Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets improved to 18-8 on Wednesday night with their win at home over Orlando and after taking their conference semifinals series with the Trail Blazers to the limit last season, the Nuggets are hungry to take the next step (or two).

Jrue Holiday would certainly fit with Denver’s outstanding defense this season. The Nuggets are second in the NBA with a 103.1 defensive rating and fourth in opponents’ effective field goal percentage (49.6). Adding a two-time All-Defensive selection to the roster would not damage the defense at all.

The reason the Nuggets might be looking to improve is that Gary Harris‘ down season in 2018-19 has morphed into a full-on offensive regression.

Harris got a four-year, $84 million extension in October 2017 and followed that up with a career year, averaging 17.5 points, 2.9 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 34.4 minutes per game, while shooting 48.5 percent overall and knocking down 39.6 percent on 5.9 3-point tries nightly.

Harris missed 25 games last season with a variety of injuries — hamstring, groin, adductor — and his numbers went down. Understandable while fighting through nagging strains and pulls.

But he’s been completely healthy this season and his numbers are mostly still in decline. In 83 games between last season and so far in this one, Harris is averaging 12.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.0 steals in 30.0 minutes per game, with his shooting down to 42.2 percent overall and 34.5 percent on 4.3 attempts a game.

Per-36 minutes that is a decline of 3.5 points per game and 0.7 steals per contest and the 0.4 increase in rebounds per game doesn’t offset that.

Harris is only 25, so he has time to get things figured out again. Using him as a centerpiece in a trade will still require some filler, as the Nuggets are $25.87 million over the cap already, per Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights. That filler could potentially cost Denver either Mason Plumlee, their primary backup to All-NBA center Nikola Jokic, or Jerami Grant, who cost the Nuggets their 2020 first-round pick (top-10 protected).

Grant is valuable insurance for still effective but aging power forward Paul Millsap, but Denver would likely not be looking to move young Michael Porter Jr. or solid depth pieces in Malik Beasley or Torrey Craig.

Using Plumlee and his $14.04 million expiring contract along with Harris, TradeNBA has the Nuggets dropping one win from their projected total and Plumlee is another player who does not fit the timeline of the New Orleans Pelicans. Pairing Harris with Will Barton‘s $12.78 million deal that has two more years remaining hammers Denver by three projected wins. Not ideal.

If it’s Harris and Grant ($9.35 million with a player option for the same amount next season), the deal is a wash in terms of projected wins.

There may be another deal out there that is less obvious, but in any case, if the Pelicans do look to move Jrue Holiday, it won’t be an easy deal to construct.