New Orleans Pelicans Introduce All-Star Guard Jrue Holiday


The New Orleans Pelicans finally introduce Jrue Holiday tonight at their complex on Airline Drive.

Holiday was received from the Philadelphia 76’ers, along with rookie guard Pierre Jackson, in exchange for Nerlens Noel (the Pelicans’ 2013 first round draft pick (6th)) and the Pelicans 2014 first round draft pick. The pick reportedly has top 5 protection. Thus, if the pick ends up being top 5, the Pelicans retain the pick and the Sixers’ get another draft pick (TBD).

Holiday is entering his 5th year in the NBA and is coming off an All-Star season, his first. The 6’4″, 205 lb. point guard is a consistent defender, though his offens dropped off last season as Philadelphia was consumed in turmoil with their coach and fall-out from the Andrew Bynum trade and subsequent drama. He’s a reliable scorer, an average 3-point shooter who takes enough shots to make ignoring him a mistake. He’s an effective passer by all reasonable metrics. He is in the first year of a 4-year, $41,000,004 contract, plus incentives.

The draft night trade was the first of the Pelicans’ off-season moves but is only now being announced because Jrue was on his honeymoon, having just married fellow Bruin and longtime girlfriend, Lauren Cheney, on July 7th. Cheney is a midfielder and forward for the US National Women’s Soccer Team and FC Kansas City.

I know the delay has been a source of frustration for anxious, eager, suspicious, etc. fans here in New Orleans. Some people are just always waiting for the other show to drop, even if it’s the third shoe. In this case, Jrue has a life outside of basketball that needed some tending, and the Pelicans did well to give him and his wife 100% leeway to start the new phase of their relationship off. They have they Jrue here for 4 years. That time will be spend in securing 5 more if he works out like we all hope.

The mutual interview starts now, hopefully with some honeymoon lagniappe here in New Orleans.

Here are recent stories on these two new Pelicans:

Notes from the Press Event

  • All are thrilled to have Jrue here. Worked hard to get him here.
  • It’s been a long day of travel for Jrue. Thanks to all for waiting, thanks to Lauren.
  • Familiar with Tyreke, looking forward to playing with him.
  • Jrue’s played in a tough market before and is excited about food, culture, organization, coaches, and family here.
  • He used to live in Ruston, and his brother’s fiance lives in Louisiana.
  • Came back early to be here for the press conference.
  • After the shock of the unexpected trade wore off, he became really excited about the players here. He expects the team to be good.
  • He took the step forward to become an All-Star by listening to his coaches. He looks forward to getting better each year.
  • Dell says the stars have lined up to make these moves. (His eyes twinkled here.)
  • The intent going into the offseason was to get Jrue, and it became official tonight. He only talked to Dell and Monty a little so far as a result of the delays.
  • He feels it’s his job to get the scorers the ball. He feels he has great chemistry with Tyreke.

14 responses to “New Orleans Pelicans Introduce All-Star Guard Jrue Holiday”

    • Gordon’s been with the team. He’s proven he can get to the lane against anybody in this league as well as pass with the best of them. Tyreke can come off the bench for three positions EG can only come off for two. Listen to dell and Monty’s plan that’s the plan fora reason. All you have to do is understand why….

      • PelaSaintiac  that makes sense. But the one thing that Tyreke does is stay healthy, Gordon hasn’t proven he can do that. Maybe by limiting Gordon’s minutes, they can keep him available for more games.

      • RobertWelch PelaSaintiac   
        I don’t get too hung up on starting.  I look at who finishes the close games and what combinations work the best together.  The Pels have a lot of possible combination just among these six versatile guys:  Holiday, Gordon, Evans, Aminu, Anderson, and Davis.  And who knows what Smith, Stiemsma, Morrow, and others can add to that group.

  1. Pelicans/Saints called me about season tickets yesterday. They called because I took my family to a game last year. They asked how I came into the the tickets.

    BourbonStreetShots sent me.

      • Jason Calmes mateor 

        I will probably get a 3 or maybe 10 game package. My kid is still 3 (almost 4 by season) so his attention span will need measuring before I start mailing checks. But I thought I would let you guys hear about the shout-out to corporate.

      • mateor Jason Calmes Very reasonable. The idea is to grow the fanbase in a reasonable way. This should be the sort of thing they are happy with.

  2. I really love his approach and treating this as an opportunity to make plays for others, that speaks greatly about him. I love that once again we’re getting a good/great point guard given that this franchise had some great one in Muggsy and CP. Also Baron Davis in the beggining before he became lazy and injury prone was a great addition.
    I am getting very excited about this new team. I also like how Dell Demps approached this off-season. Last year he got AD and most of the other things were quiet. Now they make the rebranding and a completely new team. Some may argue that we just lost all of the faces people were used to etc. But in the long run we got young veterans who cam make the face of this franchise for 5-6 years or even longer.
    They have built a foundation of players that are young and talented and yet our Franchise player isn’t even 20 years old! That’s a whole marketing change of pace that will make people want to be in New Orleans not being sent like to a 3rd strong team. I think this off season will give us stock for years to come, with the new faces, rebranding and showing the fans that we are finally in a ‘win now era’. It is great to see after all we went through loosing some of the great historical players in Dwest and CP3.

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