Portland Trail Blazers: Should they try to swing a trade for Jrue Holiday?

News recently dropped that the New Orleans Pelicans made point guard Jrue Holiday available in trades. Should the Portland Trail Blazers try to acquire him?

The NBA is now in the thick of the rumor mill season. Certain players are offered around the league as teams look to either get better or offload senior players and move into tank mode while also acquiring assets. Although the Portland Trail Blazers are firmly in win-now mode, they should be looking to acquire players to strengthen their defense.

Shams Charania of The Athletic recently announced that Jrue Holiday of the New Orleans Pelicans has been made available in trade talks now, he will likely be one of the prized players available in trade this season.

Holiday is a 30-year-old combo guard who has played in the NBA for 11 years. He is one of the league’s best defenders and has an offensive game mainly reliant on a floater and getting to the rim.

The Portland Trail Blazers require more defense, does Jrue Holiday make sense as a trade target?

The Blazers finished the 2019/20 NBA season with the 27th ranked defense in the NBA. They were truly one of the worst defensive teams in the league, especially when defending the three. They did improve in the bubble, though. With Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back, then Gary Trent Jr. playing 30 minutes a night, they were slightly better on that end, ranking 21st in the bubble. This was a better rank – but still an overall bad defensive team.

Add Trevor Ariza to the mix for next year though, and having full years of the above players and this team will be better on defense.

When looking at a player like Holiday and his game, his strengths are his ability to guard multiple positions and lock down the opposition’s best perimeter player.

The Blazers backcourt is locked in for the next five years with CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard. If they were to make a trade for a player earning max money, it would have to be moving McCollum. Lillard is the franchise cornerstone, so McCollum would be the man to go.

A season ago, if we were to have this conversation, there could be a strong case for McCollum’s straight swap for Holiday. McCollum is younger and could have been part of the next strong Pelicans team, while Holiday could have been the defensive presence that the Blazers required.

But now, with Gary Trent Jr’s breakout in 2019/20, they have a defensive player who can guard some of the best twos and threes in the game.

If you were to bring in Holiday and send McCollum out, you would end up with a lot less shot creation and a bit more defense. But, because Trent can now guard the best perimeter player, even if he isn’t at the level of Holiday defensively, you have one strong defender who can already do this.

Because Holiday isn’t as strong offensively as McCollum, you are giving up an elite shot creator who has a perfect game for the playoffs, for someone who is only a league-average three-point shooter and who can’t create at the same level.

If you were trading McCollum for a defensive player like Pat Beverley and a forward, then you would bring back two players who would help balance the roster well.

But, bringing back Holiday when you send out McCollum may hurt the team at the highest levels when it comes to the playoffs.

If I were going to make a trade, I would much rather bring in a forward and then start Trent at the two.

It’s a no in my eyes in making a move for Holiday. His defense doesn’t swing the needle enough, and giving up McCollum’s elite offense would be too much of a trade-off.

Maybe there is a trade out there to bring back more defense, but Holiday isn’t one I would pursue.