The Sixers will not be a part of the Anthony Davis sweepstakes but they could poach a different New Orleans Pelicans star. If the Pelicans go into a full rebuild it is more than likely that Jrue Holiday could be put on the market. The Ringer’s Bill Simmons brought this scenario up on his podcast this week. Simmons had been ahead of the curve when it comes to major player movement in the NBA as he called LeBron James going to the Lakers a year before it happened. Here is what Simmons had to say about Davis first and then Holiday potentially returning to the Sixers.
“They’ll take a look at Ben Simmons and the future first rounder they have from Miami for Anthony Davis. I think it’s a trade that should be explored by both teams,” Simmons said. “If you’re Philly and you have Embiid and Davis as your anchors for the rest of the decade you could argue that that gives you a better chance to win the title than Embiid and Simmons. The catch for them would be would Davis want to stay? There’s all this agency stuff in there too. Embiid is CAA. Anthony Davis is Klutch, is that going to work? Ben Simmons is already there as a Klutch guy. Two Klutch guys getting traded for each other. So even though it’s a fun one to talk about on paper I don’t know how realistic it is especially because we don’t know where the Jimmy Butler thing is going.
“One thing is that if New Orleans trades Davis is that it also makes sense for them to trade Jrue Holiday and blow it up and start over. Ironically, even though he came from Philly and was the centerpiece of the trade that launched The Process he makes a ton of sense coming back to Philly. They could put Fultz, Zhaire Smith, the Miami pick – whatever they need to get Jrue Holiday. He’s locked up on a great contract. He could guard the other team’s point guards. He’s an incredible defender. Then on offense he likes to play off the ball, which is good for Simmons. So if New Orleans is doing this correctly you’d want to trade Davis and you’d want to trade Jru Holiday. You’d want to bottom out. You’d want to get to a top five pick. We’ll see if they can do that. The Pelicans are one of the most controversial franchises in the NBA. They’re owned by Tom Benson’s widow. Dell Demps is the GM who tried to make that Chris Paul trade that was rejected.”
