Miami Heat Rumors: Revisiting the Jrue Holiday rumors out loud

The Miami Heat have been linked to Jrue Holiday of the New Orleans Pelicans for some time now. Will there ever be any real fire attached to that smoke?

The Miami Heat are most likely all in on resuming the season at the moment, dedicating every flexible and fluid resource toward ensuring that goes as smoothly as possible. While that is definitely their responsibility and while we most certainly appreciate their focus in that area, we have the freedom to continue to expound on certain thoughts, theories, or in this case, rumors.

The particular piece of information that has us curious today is a piece that has come to the forefront of the headlines before and very recently again. As the Miami Heat have been linked to combo guard Jrue Holiday for a while now, most recently leading up to this season’s NBA Trade deadline, the rumors have once again become a topic of talk.

This time though, geared towards the summer of 2021, when Holiday is once again scheduled to be a free agent. Here is a bit more on the topic though, from Barry Jackson of Miami Herald.

"Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday (potential 2021 unrestricted free agent): There was Heat interest in the months before the trade deadline, but New Orleans wasn’t interested.But Holiday would be close to Oladipo in terms of Heat interest/possibilities, presuming Holiday opts out of $26.3 million for 2021-22. A case could be made for Holiday over Oladipo, if Holiday outperforms him over the next 14 months.Holiday, at 29, is only a year older than Oladipo and would give Miami a 19.6-per-game scorer (35.7 percent on threes) who was first-team All NBA defense in 2018 and second team in 2019."

While getting him in free agency during the summer of 2021 would certainly be something to consider, if he’s still a guy of interest to the Heat by then, be that for fit, need, or otherwise, there is another situation that can be explored.

The Miami Heat and Jrue Holiday could be a championship pairing. Is there any way he could be had prior to his free agency in the summer of 2021?

Is there any likelihood that Pat Riley and the Miami Heat could find a way to package Kendrick Nunn and other resources together to land Holiday? It would be a win/win move for both parties from multiple perspectives.

It would allow the Miami Heat to add another upper echelon piece, without giving up anything. While that isn’t saying that Nunn has no value, as he is immensely valuable based on his production to pay rate ratio, Holiday could man the role the Nunn did, plus some.

What this speaks towards is Holiday actually being capable of running and operating as a true point guard, as well as in the combo/off guard role that Nunn has become so accustomed to.

The New Orleans Pelicans are in the process of building around their young core that will most certainly feature Zion Williamson and a deal for Nunn would not only give them more resources to most efficiently go about that, but a Nunn addition would give them a younger pre-prime guard to grow with Williamson over time, as opposed to Holiday who is firmly in his prime.

The rumor in itself is a desirable one, as Holiday could be the piece that could propel this current Miami Heat group to a title, but to be able to get it done prior to after the end of next season would be the most desirable outcome. Either way you go, it’s all worth thinking about or wondering about out loud, as we did here.