Dallas Mavericks: How the Jrue Holiday trade impacts the Mavs

How the Jrue Holiday trade impacts the Dallas Mavericks: 1. Learn from past mistakes

On paper, not being able to acquire Holiday stings for the Dallas Mavericks. He is a magnificent guard that would play so well alongside Luka Doncic plus be a reliable takeover threat in crunch time.

Holiday moves across an NBA court like a gazelle and his shooting steadily improves year by year. He has some injury inconsistency, though. The 30-year-old hasn’t played in more than 70 games in any season with New Orleans, sans 2017-18, but when he’s healthy he’s vicious with his playmaking and is one of the better defensive guards in the NBA. Two areas where the Mavericks could benefit.

Yet, the 6’3 guard is not by any stretch of the imagination the only, or even best available candidate to immediately supply Luka with help as the Mavericks attempt to build a serious championship contender. There are plenty of guards in the NBA that have the exciting athleticism and showmanship of Holiday.

New Orleans dealing Holiday cements them as a rebuilder. With Houston likely to go ballistic with trades this offseason, San Antonio still on the cusp of being a playoff contender again, and Memphis being too young to yet impose a serious threat on the league, this is a key opportunity for Dallas to get better. The Pelicans debatably have the division’s best young core behind Dallas but losing Holiday hurts.

The Dallas Mavericks have to play their cards assuming Giannis isn’t leaving Milwaukee. It may pain a lot of fans to read that, but it nice to have Holiday removed as an opponent four times a year.

The Mavs need to learn from past mistakes. Do not throw all your eggs into one basket of a future free agency because it rarely works, particularly for Dallas. Jrue Holiday, Victor Oladipo, Rudy Gobert, Kawhi Leonard, and LeBron James are all expected to be free agents in the summer of ’21, and that’s only naming a few high profile players. Dallas must jump on a third talent.

This Holiday trade isn’t a knife in the Mavs’ heart, but it is one option off the table. It is time for the Dallas Mavericks to emerge in talks with other stars before it’s too late.