2013 NBA Draft: Philadelphia 76ers Foolishly Trade Jrue Holiday To New Orleans Pelicans For No. 6 Pick Nerlens Noel


Nerlens Noel

Mark Zerof – USA TODAY Sports

There were rumors going around that the Philadelphia 76ers were looking to trade up. However, no one saw what happened during the draft. Philadelphia traded All-Star Jrue Holiday to the New Orleans Pelicans for newly drafted Nerlens Noel. In addition, the Sixers traded the 2013 NBA Draft’s 42nd-overall pick and received the Pelicans’ 2014 first-round pick.

At first, I was excited to see Noel was heading to Philly, but that headed south when Holiday was on his way out. Holiday was the Sixers only All-Star and was the leader of the team. From a public relations perspective, this move does not fill seats or improve the team.

Noel has knee problems and is coming off of an ACL tear — cue Andrew Bynum 2.0. The Bynum experiement failed, and if I was grading this trade, the Sixers would receive a big fat F. Anyway, Holiday was in as much shock as the rest of the basketball world when this trade went down.

I can’t wait to hear what the Sixers front office has to say about this one, but it will probably make as much sense as this trade. Sixers trade their best player for someone who has knee problems and hasn’t player one minute in the NBA. This trade doesn’t bode well for the Sixers’ success this upcoming season.

All we can do now is wish this was a horrible nightmare, but unfortunately it was not. The Sixers trade away their best player in Holiday for someone who fell in the 2013 NBA Draft.

Phil Naegely is a sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Like him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter@pnaegelyRS and add him to your circles on Google.

Check out Rant Sports Coverage of the 2013 NBA Draft! See who your team picked and why they will fit or bust!



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