Finally, some good news for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Jrue Holiday, the team’s starting point guard, hasn’t been with the team all year while dealing with a family situation. His wife, Laura, was pregnant with the couple’s first child and needed to have a brain tumor surgically removed, which she wasn’t able to do until after the child was born. No timetable had been set for Holiday’s return.
Technically, there still isn’t a concrete timetable for his return action. But Adrian Wojnarowski of the The Vertical says its coming soon:
Jrue Holiday's return to the Pelicans is imminent, league sources tell @TheVertical. He's planning to make his season debut next week.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) November 11, 2016
Hopefully this also means that Laura is making a full recovery, because that’s the most important thing in all this. New Orleans needs Jrue, but his family’s well-being should be the foremost concern.
The Pelicans, despite superhuman efforts from Anthony Davis, have been absolutely terrible this season. They have one of the worst offensive ratings in the league and didn’t get their first victory of the year until Thursday night’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Getting Holiday back gives the Pelicans’ supporting cast some credibility. They are basically pieced together with Davis and a bunch of fliers. Many of them, like Solomon Hill and E’Twaun Moore, add something defensively; New Orleans’ defense, to that end, hasn’t been too bad.
But Holiday injects some sorely needed offensive structure into the rotation. He is a proven shooter and playmaker, consistently performing like a top-12 player at his position when healthy. The problem is he hasn’t been healthy since arriving in New Orleans. And this season, now that he’s healthy, he hasn’t been available.
Once that changes, perhaps the Pelicans’ immediate outlook will, too.
