The New Orleans Pelicans made headlines on Wednesday when it was revealed that they had placed former All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday on the trading block. David Griffin, the executive vice president for basketball operations for the Pelicans, has recently come out with a statement about the rumors.
This is what Griffin had to say in a lengthy message addressing Holiday's potential departure (h/t Pelicans insider Oleh Kosel):
Griffin just responded to @ShamsCharania tweet regarding today's Jrue Holiday trade rumor during a VIP exclusive with Coach Stan Van Gundy and David Griffin. pic.twitter.com/J2xXuE6I2N
— Oleh Kosel 🇺🇦 (@OlehKosel) November 5, 2020
In so many words, Griffin just expressed how appreciative the team is of what Holiday has done for the franchise in the past seven years. However, by not denying the fact that they're listening to offers on the 30-year-old, he basically confirmed that Holiday is indeed available for trade.
This recent development may point to the fact that the Pelicans are leaning towards Lonzo Ball as their point guard of the future. There were also rumors about Ball being traded away in the offseason, but as it appears, they'd rather roll with him than with Holiday. This makes sense given how Ball is just 23, and how he falls nicely into the team's current timeline.
This does not mean that Holiday does not provide value for the Pelicans. It's actually quite the contrary for the two-time All-Defensive team member. As a matter of fact, as Griffin implied above, they're also not counting out the possibility of keeping Holiday on board. Perhaps they just understand that Holiday's value is probably not going to be higher than it is now, and that if they were ever going to trade him, now would be the perfect time.
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