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| Jrue takes his talents to NOLA |
Dell Demps: “First of all, I want to say
thank you guys for coming tonight and being patient. Today is a big day
for the Pelicans. The trade is official. Jrue Holliday is a New Orleans
Pelican and we’re very excited. Currently, Coach
(Monty) Williams couldn’t be here. He’s in Las Vegas with the Summer
League team, but he’s just thrilled. He’s sending me these texts and
telling me about all these plays he’s drawing up. We’re just thrilled to
have Jrue Holliday as a part of our organization.
We had the opportunity to acquire him and we didn’t hesitate. We did
what we had to do to make sure we could bring him here and we’re just
excited. We think we have a good, young core and we think Jrue will be
our point guard. As I’ve said before, this is
a young group that is veterans. Our core group is going into their
fifth and sixth years in the NBA. You add Anthony Davis to that,
Al-Farouq Aminu coming back, and the additions we just signed in Anthony
Morrow and Greg Stiemsma. We think we have some exciting
times ahead. We also know we have some hard work ahead because it is
going to take some time for these guys to mesh and understand each
other, but we feel good about the prospects of watching them grow. I
feel like I’ve talked enough, so I’d like to introduce
to the New Orleans community and you guys today, Mr. Jrue Holliday.”
Jrue Holliday: “I just want to say that I’m
excited to be here. Again, sorry for the delay and thank you all for
being here. It’s been a long day, but I’m excited to be here. The
coaching staff, the front office, the players and
even New Orleans itself, I’m really excited to be a part of this and
push forward with the core group of guys we have. I think we’re really
talented and we will be really good.”
Q: How do you feel about playing with new acquisition Tyreke Evans?
Jrue: “I’m real excited. Growing up, most
of the time I battled against him, but playing alongside him and knowing
how tough he is mentally and obviously physically (is exciting). He’s
got a big wide frame. Playing with him I know
is going to be really fun.
Q: How do you feel about playing in this city, and handling the fans in this city?
Jrue: “I think I’ve been playing in one of
the toughest markets with one of the toughest fan bases (in
Philadelphia), and I was really successful there. It was obviously new
for me and obviously coming here is new, but again when
you sit back and think about the food, the culture, having family here,
being able to play with a core group of guys we have here and the
coaching staff, it’s only good things here. I’m really excited to be
here. I mean, I came back early from my honeymoon
to be here and I thank my wife for letting me do that. I’m just glad we
are pushing forward.”
Q: Would you say this is the best time of your life, starting a new life with your marriage and a new team?
Jrue: “As of right now, good things are
happening. I just got married. As you said, new things are beginning.
I’m really excited to come down here for the first time and meet
everybody and see the new practice facility they are
about to have. I guess you could say it’s a really good time for me.”
Q: How did you first learn of the trade and what was your initial reaction?
Jrue: “Me and my agent talk. Obviously,
there were a lot of things going on at the time, not about New Orleans
though. (Philadelphia General Manager) Sam Hinkie called me. After New
Orleans drafted the rookie (Nerlens Noel), I got
the call saying I was traded. The initial hit was ‘wow.’ Once you start
thinking about it though, back then you had Ryan Anderson, Jason Smith,
Robin Lopez, and Eric Gordon. I was like ‘dang, we’re actually going to
be really good.’ So, obviously I think the
initial hit is kind of like wow, but once you think about it I’m
actually on the up and up.”
Q: Have you talked to Tyreke Evans since the trade?
Jrue: “I
haven’t talked to Tyreke. A day after (the trade) I was in China, I
was there until the third (of July), then I got married, and then I was
in Cancun. I’m not really sure I
talked to anybody. I talked to Monty (Williams) just a text telling me
congratulations and welcome to the team. Other than that, I have kind
of been on the move. Now though, I have some time to settle down and
get used to all of this.”
Q: What helped you raise your game to an All-Star level last year?
Jrue: “I
honestly think it was just me trying to listen to my coaches, me trying
to become a better leader and a better player, just fitting in to my
team better. I think I did what
my team needed me to do, even though we didn’t make the playoffs and
accomplish what we wanted to, but I felt like me getting better every
single year is something I wanted to do. I feel like since my rookie
year, I have done that.”
Q: Andre Iguodala called you the best on the ball defender in the NBA, what does that mean to you and mean to your team?
Jrue: “For
one, that means a lot. Especially coming from Andre (Iguodala). My
rookie year, I looked up to Andre to see what he’d done. Him guarding
Kobe (Bryant) and LeBron (James),
guarding all the best guys. It means a lot, especially when you have a
packed point guard conference like the Western Conference you have to
bring it every single night or you’re going to get embarrassed. Defense
is obviously what wins championships. Offense,
yeah people can score and do all that, but especially in a league like
this it’s tough to stop guys and I think it’s a matter of effort and
wanting to be a really good defender.”
Q: Did you envision these pieces lining up this way on draft night?
Dell: “The
stars had lined up, and we feel really good about the core of guys we
have now. We feel like we also know that there’s work ahead. On paper
it looks good right now, but we
also know that the Western Conference is loaded. As we were doing
these things, we saw the bar keep rising not only in the west, but even
in our division. It’s exciting, I can’t wait to get the guys here for
practice to start and for us to start building
something. We feel like we have that opportunity to start building
something.”
Q: Did Nerlens Noel falling to the Pelicans in the draft enable the trade for Jrue Holiday?
Dell:
“I don’t like to get in to trade discussions because I don’t think it’s
fair to both teams and all the parties involved. However, our intent
was to get Jrue and we are really happy
about that. I’m just thrilled right now. The trade became official
tonight and we just now are able to talk about it. We weren’t able to
have many conversations with Jrue until today. This is actually our
first time talking, and I am just thrilled to have
him here.”
Q: Did you anticipate the draft shaping up the way it did?
Dell:
“Yeah, I had a little idea, I had an indication. I was on the phone
with Monty (Williams), and you know Monty is great, but he texted me
about 40 times in a two hour period and
we were going back and forth. We are both pretty excited about the
prospect of things moving forward.”
Q: Are you excited to play with Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon?
Jrue: “Again, you have two guards who are
obviously very, very good scorers. Hoenstly, I feel like I’ve just got
to be able to get them the ball, get them the ball where they like to
get it, where they like to score and where they
like to shoot. Playing with Tyreke (Evans) it’s been easy ever since
we were younger, the chemistry has always been there. Eric Gordon,
seeing him play last year when I was with the (USA) select team and
seeing him go up against the Olympians and the way
he just really went at them, it’s just really exciting for me. Playing
against him for the last three years now, he was always one of those
people I just really wanted to play with.”
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