He's clearly improved on the defensive end over the last couple of years to the point that he was named to the First Team All Defense last year, somehow manages to have a positive DRPM this year despite playing with net negative defenders across the board outside of Davis (it's almost the same as Rubio's despite Rubio getting to play with the best defensive player in the league and a better defensive team in general), the team is 9.6 Points Per 100 worse off with Holiday off the floor on the defensive end alone, let alone the extra +5.1 Points Per 100 he brings on the offensive end (note - the Pelicans are worse either way when you take one or both of Jrue/Davis off the floor, but they've statistically been better with Jrue on/Davis off vs Jrue off/Davis on this season), and his tracking numbers on the perimeter are above average. He also passes the eye test when you watch him play, the Pelicans are just a disaster defensively outside of Jrue and AD this year, and he's shown that in the playoffs he is capable of completely shutting down All-NBA guards as his defense on Lillard/McCollum was a huge part of the reason why the Pelicans swept the Blazers in the 1st round last year. He has clearly developed into a great two way talent, and imo the only thing that really holds him back from being put up in the same tier as Butler or PG13 defensively is his size limitations.
His 3pt% is bad this year but I think a large part of that has to do with him having to carry the offensive load from a shot creation standpoint for the majority of the season with his only pass first PG being hurt most the season, AD missing various chunks of the season, and Mirotic missing up to about half the season now (he shoots 37.1% from deep on catch and shoot situations this season for example). Also despite missing various key players for basically the entire season after October and him shooting poorly from deep, he's still a significantly more efficient player than Rubio with a 55.7TS% compared to Rubio's 51.6%. To me he's just having to do a little bit more than what he's really capable of doing for the Pelicans right now, whereas in theory on the Jazz with Mitchell as the guy to take the tough shots, Ingles there as a secondary playmaker, and another dominant roll man in Gobert while also having a variety of spacing options you would be able to significantly lighten the offensive load Jrue would have to carry on the Jazz while simultaneously pairing two 1st team All Defense players together on what is already one of the most dominant defensive teams in the last few years.
Jrue is absolutely a no brainer addition to the Jazz in my opinion, I would trade Favors/Exum/Allen/Thabo/1st/2 2nds for Jrue and Mirotic, and maybe even another 1st if it was the difference between getting him or not to put Jrue on this team, and then figure out the rest later with a core of Mitchell/Holiday/Gobert locked in for the next few years with Crowder/Ingles/Korver/Royce/hopefully re-signed Mirotic as your key rotation guys. It's probably an overpay in a vacuum but I think it would need to be an overpay to pry Jrue from NOLA, and I think the ceiling of a Mitchell/Holiday/Gobert team is worth the price. He's also the kind of guy who fits the team identity and I think he'd be great for Utah both on and off the court.