Is Jrue Holiday or Bradley Beal a better fit with the Nuggets?

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Harrison Wind: Jrue Holiday

I went back and forth on this question a lot but ultimately settled on Holiday for this reason: I’d rather Holiday’s defensive versatility in a playoff environment. When looking at both of their seasons I was surprised to see that both Beal and Holiday had very similar offensive years, although Beal’s much higher Usage Percentage allowed him to put up bigger counting stats. Holiday shot 50.2% from two-point range, Beal shot 51.5%. Holiday converted on 35.7% of his 3-pointers, Beal converted on 35.3% of his triples. Holiday recorded a 51.4 EFG%, Beal’s registered a 52 EFG%.

I’d trust Holiday to fit into the Nuggets’ equal opportunity offense a bit more than Beal too. Defensively, Denver’s inability to limit opposing guards and wings (Derrick White, Rodney Hood) was the Nuggets’ biggest downfall in the postseason last year. Holiday cures those playoff pains.

Brendan Vogt: Bradley Beal

With capable shooters in his orbit and an elite second-scoring option alongside him, there is no guarding Nikola Jokić. You can double him, but he will make the right play. That works against some lineups featuring Torrey Craig, but it wouldn’t work against a unit featuring one of—if not both—Jamal Murray and Bradley Beal in the backcourt, plus Will Barton III or Michael Porter Jr. at Small Forward.

Jrue Holiday would elevate Denver’s floor and ceiling on the defensive end, but I’m skeptical his addition would solve Denver’s newfound predictability problem on offense. The 2019-20 Nuggets are a schemeable team. A team featuring at least Jokić, Beal, and Porter Jr. is not. Those Nuggets would compete for a title regardless of how the rest of the league shifts around them. If they can make this move while hanging onto one of Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr., then I think they should.

The Nuggets didn’t skip steps, and now the biggest one to date stands before them. They probably need a slam-dunk transaction to put them over the top, and must balance that against an appropriate sense of urgency — these windows of contention don’t last long. Beal, to me, looks like that final step for Denver.

Adam Mares: Bradley Beal

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to long time followers of mine who know that my preferences on questions of fit skew heavily towards the offensive end of the court. Holiday is a fantastic player and would fit nicely next to Jokic but there are still concerns about his mediocre three-point shooting. In a playoff setting, teams would likely elect to sag off of Holiday and live with him taking an uncomfortable amount of three-point attempts. In his career, Holiday has made 5 or more three-point shots in a game just 15 times. For reference, Jamal Murray has done so 20 times and Bradley Beal has reached that mark 59 times.

Jrue is by far the best option of the three on the defensive end but the dropoff in perimeter scoring between a player like Beal and a player like Holiday is just too great. Give me Bradley Beal and fill in the surrounding pieces with defensive specialists.