5 potential trade destinations for Jrue Holiday
4. Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings have De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield in the starting backcourt, so the fit here isn’t seamless; someone would have to come off the bench. Then again, that description applies to their current situation with Bogdan Bogdanovic, and unlike Holiday, Double Bogdan bears the additional problem of being a restricted free agent this summer.
After working out an extension with Hield but failing to do the same with Bogdanovic, the Kings could soon be in an awkward situation unless they find a way to trade out of some disastrous deals (cough Harrison Barnes cough). Turning Bogdanovic into a player of Holiday’s caliber, especially when he’s under contract through at least 2020-21 (with a $27.2 million player option for 2021-22), might be the best way to avoid losing him to another team’s max offer sheet this summer.
After all, the 2020 free agency pool is severely shallow, which means someone might be willing to make an offer Sacramento is unprepared to match. Holiday has experience coming off the bench as a sixth man, so he’d be able to help coach up Fox and Hield as well. A package of Bogdanovic, Trevor Ariza and a future first-round pick might get it done, with Justin James thrown in to match salaries.
The Kings own all of their picks, and if they wanted to really spice things up, they could offer their 2020 selection and risk it all on Holiday boosting them into the playoffs and out of the draft lottery. Ariza has been tragic in SacTown, so he’d hardly be missed.
For the Pelicans, they’d be getting another shooter who can do a little bit of everything with Bogdanovic, who’s averaging 14.6 points and 3.9 assists in 27.7 minutes per game on 40.1 percent 3-point shooting. Ariza’s $12.8 million salary for next season is non-guaranteed, and another first-rounder is never a bad thing for a rebuild.
However, even this might not be enough to entice New Orleans, especially since the Pelicans already have to worry about Brandon Ingram‘s impending free agency.