The Jrue Holiday Trade Is WEIRD…

The Jrue Holiday Trade Is WEIRD…

the strangest move of the NBA offseason so far is here as the Boston Celtics have traded Drew Holidayiday to the Portland Trailblazers for Anthony Simons and two second round picks first let’s talk about this deal for the Celtics we knew coming into the offseason that they would likely look to shed some salary this off seasonason this is a team that was going to be incredibly expensive you’ve got new owners coming in and Jason Tatum just tore Achilles so it’s pretty obvious they’re not going to be able to win big in the East next year even in a compromised Eastern Conference with so many different teams that are really not going to be involved a very weak conference it’s still pretty clear the Celtics are not going to be able to win a title next year without Jason Tatum so there’s no real point in having the roster be as expensive as it is and so they’re looking to move not just Drew Holiday but various pieces on their roster we’re talking about Christoph Porzingis even someone like Sam Hower all these guys are going to be able to help them save so much money on their payroll and the concept was let’s take a year off basically let’s get rid of some salary let’s wait for Jason Tatum to come back from injury and then really try and compete the following season there have also been some rumors that they’re getting some really crazy offers for guys like Jaylen Brown and Dererick White but so far they have resisted those offers and don’t look to be going that far into a actual rebuild and more so just a retool for one season having said all those things I’m pretty surprised by this Drew Holiday trade because given the financial situation with the Celtics the Tatum injury there’s a bunch of stuff happening here we all kind of knew that Drew Holiday was going to be available and probably get traded i had an idea in my mind of what a Drew Holiday trade would look like and it just wasn’t this and it’s pretty strange to say that what is essentially a salary dump for the Celtics is a win for them but given their goals this offseason given the direction that they’re going in this is absolutely a positive really positive trade for the Boston Celtics when you look at his contract over the next couple of seasons a contract the Celtics just signed him to by the way last year he’s got three years left on his deal making 33,35 and $37 million out last year being a player option andrew Holidayiday just turned 35 years old and he hasn’t always been the most durable guy throughout his career and frankly I thought the Celtics were going to have to like attach something to his contract to get a team to take him a deal but they actually got good stuff in return for Drew Holiday if you compare the Holiday contract to someone like Chrisaps Porzingis it would presumably be much easier to move Holiday rather than Porzingis because he has an expiring contract it doesn’t have multiple years left on his deal although on the floor Holiday is more helpful than Porzingis and even though it’s not a great contest Holiday has been more consistently durable I still thought that they would have to trade something with Holiday to get rid of him whereas Porzingis might just be a straightup salary dump because of the expiring contract but not only did the Celtics get rid of the Holiday contract immediately because Anthony Simons is an expiring contract going into next year but they also could flip Simons at the deadline if they wanted to they get two second round picks or they could just resign Anthony Simons and have gotten much younger added some scoring and again not had to attach an asset to Drew Holiday to get rid of him in the first place in this new kind of landscape in the NBA where teams are looking to shed salary everybody’s afraid of the second apron i just assumed that a contract as big as Holidays at 35 years old with multiple years left with a player ops at the end of it would have required the Celtics to give up something and obviously I understand the value of Drew Holiday he was a critical part of the Celtics winning an NBA title this one just surprised me i would have thought that the trade would have looked something more like this on screen if the Celtics did end up moving on from Holiday so given all those things I’m gonna give the Celtics an A minus for this deal i think it’s really good value simons is an interesting piece for them and I certainly don’t think they’re done making moves but this is a really good step one so what does that mean for the Trailblazers part in all this well I actually think it’s pretty underrated how good the Trailblazers were last year people really weren’t paying all that much attention to them but with a really young core some of those guys stepped forward and developed they almost made the playin in a tough Western Conference last year and clearly they’re looking to make the next step and see Drew Holiday as that piece but as I mentioned in the Celtics section this is a pretty strange move we know that Anthony Simons has been on the trade block for years it seems like every single season for the last couple years I’ve had to talk about a trade rumor involving Anthony Simons going to the Orlando Magic he’s been pretty available for years now and Holiday if he plays is a really great addition with his defense and his veteran presence for all these young guys that they have but really I have two main issues with the trade for Portland one this is a lot of faith and a lot of pressure on guys like Scoot Henderson on this roster they have a bunch of really good young players denny had a good season shaden Sharp’s really good scoot was better although that’s not saying much after a disastrous rookie season and getting rid of Anthony Simons tells me that they have a lot of faith in specifically Scoop but also the rest of the young players on the roster to really improve and be much better because even though Simons has been extremely available he’s a good player he can shoot that shooting and spacing is is a pretty underrated aspect of how much that means to this Trailblazers roster and to just assume that getting rid of Scoot and then bringing in such a defensive-minded player in Holiday is going to be a positive for Portland is a pretty big leap in my opinion because one you’re assuming that Drew Holidayiday is actually going to play and two you’re kind of discounting how important Simons was to the team and two the contract i have an issue with the contract that the Trailblazers just took on and what they sent out in exchange for the deal i’ve already mentioned in the previous section I felt like they probably would have gotten an asset i thought the trade would have looked something like this if they did take on Drew Holiday and I think it’s distinctly possible that over the next couple of seasons they’re paying a 35-year-old mid30 million per year for a guy that just doesn’t really play all that much and when he plays is impactful but maybe isn’t a fantastic fit with the rest of the roster and for a team that’s clearly looking to take a step forward next season I can understand the value of adding Drew Holiday it just confuses me why that move involved letting go of someone like Anthony Simons unless they just really don’t like his fit long term and of course the expiring contract nature of that but you added a guy in Drew Holiday that’s got an expensive contract for the next couple of seasons so I don’t understand how it’s important and helpful that you got rid of someone that was on an expiry and it’s distinctly possible that this works out really well for Portland because Drew Holiday is good maybe he’s really healthy but it’s just a strange deal and I would give them a B minus grade and frankly the only reason why it’s not lower is just because we’ve seen the impact that Drew Holiday can have on winning at multiple different places now and I don’t want to be that kind of wrong by giving this like a C minus or a D-grade because Drew Holiday can still be really really good and absolutely worth that contract if he’s healthy and he plays but almost more interesting than any of those things is what this trade potentially means moving forward for each of these teams because we know that the Celtics are still looking like Sham said this in his article other people have said this the Celtics are definitely still evaluating the rest of the roster and I would not be shocked if a team like the Rockets for example has this crazy offer out there for Jaylen Brown as someone that they want to bring in alongside Kevin Durant they’ve still got plenty of pieces after adding Durant we know that Emma Udoka has a past history with Jaylen Brown and the Celtics especially when they’re getting back guys like Anthony Simons that kind of gear a little bit even younger than I would have thought that they would be kind of going towards as they figure out what to do in the post Jason Tatum era here this is a really really interesting return as it relates to Jaylen Brown or possible other trades on this roster maybe even someone like Derrick White where they really just try and add a bunch of assets maybe they resign Anthony Simons in the offseason and they have this whole completely different team by the time that Tatum comes back so I’m definitely keeping an eye on Boston and I’m keeping an eye on Portland because trading for someone like Drew Holiday to me tells me that they are more ready to make this big leap next year than maybe most people expected and that could potentially involve getting rid of someone like Jeremy Grant it could involve putting together a couple of these young players in a trade package to get some kind of start it’s clear that Portland is tired of winning you know 30 something games or less every single season over the last couple years and they really want to try and not necessarily go allin but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that like Desmond Bane style trade like the Magic made a week or two ago that kind of a deal for Portland where it’s another move that takes them potentially even further up what is going to be a very tough Western Conference standings next season this is a super interesting it’s a strange trade but it’s a super interesting trade and I can’t wait to see more of them as the draft gets closer

The strangest move of the NBA offseason so far is here with the Jrue Holiday as the Boston Celtics have traded Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trailblazers for Anfernee Simons and 2 2nd round picks.

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