While Jrue Holiday has emerged as the player teams would like to acquire ahead of the trade deadline, he is likely to remain with the New Orleans Pelicans.

There had been speculation among teams that Holiday could eventually seek a trade from the Pelicans, but league sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic that he's made it clear he's happy in New Orleans and committed to the franchise. Holiday would like to take the rest of the season to see how the team performs.

The Pelicans have wanted to evaluate the roster throughout the entire season and the belief is David Griffin will stick to that plan.

The Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat are among the teams interested in Holiday with other teams expected to also emerge. The Pelicans are listening to trade calls on Holiday, but their asking price remains high on Holiday. 

Alvin Gentry discussed staying disciplined with Zion Williamson's playing time despite the excitement and reaction from fans.

"It's the way we've decided, it's best for him right now and that's what we're going to stick to. I know everybody gets real excited, and I hear every night that I'm the dumbest coach in the world about why would I take the guy out in the game of the last 5 minutes or 6 minutes? So I'll live with that knowing that we're doing the right thing," said Gentry following the Pelicans' 113-106 loss to the Nuggets.

Williamson finished with 15 points and 6 rebounds on the night. Williamson has shot 15-of-20 from the field, the highest field goal percentage through two games out of any player in the shot clock era, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Gentry says that the team need to be patient until Williamson can fully be incorporated into the rotation. 

"I think he's shown he's getting more of a feel. The speed of the game and all of that. So we just got to be patient enough to understand to let him get to the point where he can play a normal rotation minutes. We will not deviate from that at all. If it will be a few more games, then that's what it's going to be and we just gotta understand."

Zion Williamson's NBA regular season debut had a 1.6 US rating, which matches ESPN's highest-rated game this season beyond Christmas Day.

The game averaged 2.357 million viewers and peaked with 2.777 million viewers.

Williamson had 22 points, seven rebounds and three assists while shooting 4-for-4 on three-point shooting in just over 18 minutes. 

Zion Williamson expressed his excitement over his upcoming NBA debut on Wednesday night against the San Antonio Spurs.

"Honestly, I don't know if I'm going to get sleep. I'll be too excited thinking about my first NBA game. ... This is my first NBA game. This is business now," said Williamson.

Williamson is expected to start in the Pelicans' lineup.

Williamson added that he learned how to land differently as he recovered from knee surgery.

"I think it's not landing straight legs, kind of don't let all my force go into my legs. It's a lot of technical stuff. I really couldn't explain it to you, to be honest. I could probably show you on a video better," said Williamson.

The New Orleans Pelicans have backed away from trade discussions and are focused on making the playoffs, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.

"They have really pulled back in trade talks among all their players. They want to make the playoffs," said Wojnarowski on Sportscenter.

The Pelicans, who are currently 3.5 games out of the 8th seed, have the easiest schedule in the league the rest of the season.

Jrue Holiday was reportedly available earlier this year.

Zion Williamson is expected to make his Pelicans debut on Wednesday against the Spurs. 

The New Orleans Pelicans plan on starting Zion Williamson against the San Antonio Spurts on Wednesday.

David Griffin said last week that Williamson will not be on a minutes restriction, but that he will play in short bursts.

Alvin Gentry said he was prepared for the off-court "circus" ahead of Williamson's debut.

"It's going to be a circus and everyone knows that ... It is going to be good to get him out there. I think the big thing for us is we just need to get him out there so all of this goes away and then we can start to figure out rotations and how we are going to play and things we are going to do," said Gentry.

Brandon Ingram added that he expects Pelicans games to sell out with Williamson back healthy.

"It's going to be sold out. Every single night. When they start to see Zion playing, it's going to be sold out."

Zion Williamson has been upgraded to doubtful for the New Orleans Pelicans game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday.

Williamson is still expected to make his debut on Wednesday against the Spurs despite the upgrade in status.

Williamson had been listed as out for every game this season.

Zion Williamson gained eight pounds of muscle during a one-week heavy weightlifting routine during the offseason. The amount of weight gain from Williamson shocked staffers.

"He's not normal," David Griffin said. "So finding stasis with Zion is the challenge, because he's 19 years old. He's still growing. It's not going to be about a number. It's going to be about metrics of flexibility and strength and control and all of the different things that we can measure that really are outside of weight."

One NBA athletic trainer who is familiar with Williamson agrees.

"If you're not moving well, I don't care if you're 300 pounds or if you're 175 pounds, there's going to be a problem," the trainer said. "It's got to be quality movement. The mechanics have to be done right."

"Zion has the highest peak force of any athlete we've ever assessed -- and he was still in high school," said Dr. Marcus Elliott, founder of P3.

Zion Williamson entered the NBA as one of the most highly rated prospects in years, but injury concerns have made some observers more cautious when predicting his career.

At least one general manager anonymously said he would have taken Ja Morant over Williamson even back in June, which is an opinion that feels more valid now with Morant having a strong start to his career.

“I wouldn’t have taken him No. 1 even back then,” a Western Conference general manager said. “I would’ve taken Ja [Morant] or traded back to pick up as many picks as I could.”

“I’d definitely still take him first, wouldn’t you?” an Eastern Conference executive responded.

“Yeah, when you consider everything he brings, I’m still picking him first,” another Eastern Conference general manager said

The New Orleans Pelicans have announced that Zion Williamson's NBA regular season debut will happen on January 22nd against the San Antonio Spurs.

Williamson has been making progress towards his return over the past few weeks.

Williamson underwent surgery to repair his meniscus back in October.