THE Boston Celtics exchange Jrue Holiday At Portland Trail Blazers For Anfernee Simons and two second round choices in the first major profession since the end of the Nba Finals. It is a fairly rare trade insofar as the recent Celtics champion gives the well -known veteran while the young reconstruction team emits young talents in a winning effort.
So what does the agreement mean? And who won the agreement? Let’s prevail the performance of Boston and Portland in the surprise blockbuster on Monday.
Jrue Holiday Trade: Celtics sends All-Star Guard to Trail Blazers for Anfernee Simons and Picks, compared to
Sam Quinn
Boston Celtics: a
Let’s start with a fairly basic question: how good is Jrue Holiday? Next year will be his 35 -year season. He was on average 11.1 points per match, his less since his recruit year, and he did it in Boston, with an almost perfect spacing to make life easier. It was the first season that he missed a selection of all defense since he left New Orleans in 2020. Although he remains an effective defender, he is probably the best suited to the Wings Guard at this stage. Asking him to follow the fastest guards of Nba Today is probably a major challenge, and it will become more difficult as it ages.
The holidays are therefore probably still a useful player, potentially even of a starting caliber who is visibly decreasing. However, it is paid at almost a star level. He will earn $ 32.4 million in his age-35-year-old season, $ 34.8 million in his 36-year-old season and, through a player option, $ 37.2 million in his 37-year-old season. Unless you thought that the holidays are always something close to the advanced vacation, it is a negative value contract. This is the kind of transaction that a team should probably have to attach money to descend into a vacuum.
Instead, at the very least, the Celtics obtain two second round choices and escape the last two years of the Holiday contract. Simons is on an expired contract of $ 27.7 million next season. If they choose it, they can just let him walk. If they do, they will have obtained two second round choices, saved approximately $ 5 million for their objective of descending below the second apron this season (they are now about $ 18 million) and have cut their books for the last two years without having abandoned something of long -term value. This alone is a major victory.
But this is the worst result for Boston. Anfernee Simons is a good player! He has an average of 20.7 points per match since he became a full -time starter three seasons ago, and he did it, as Joe Mazzulla surely knows, pulling 37.4% out of 8.8 attempts of 3 points per game. Celtics love the artillerymen, and Simons is categorically a shooter. It can create a little dribbling and has become a sufficiently acceptable playmaker. With Jayson Tatum Crushed, Celtics could use this kind of offensive punch if they hope to stay competitive next season.
And Simons is only 26 years old! He could have room to grow. He is, frankly, a terrible defensive player, and that is part of what forced Portland to exchange it, but the Celtics of the Tatum-Jaylen Brown era were strong enough at this end to protect it. Even if they cannot, he could always be a sixth high -end man as a vulnerable defender. We only saw him bringing bad offenses. Now we see what it can be in a good one. So, at worst, the Celtics have a cruelly necessary cranial relief. At best, they get a really promising young player who could help them not only while Tatum came out, but after his return and in the next era of Celtics basketball. Not poor transport for a contract they had desperately to move.
Portland Trail Blazers: C-
OK, let’s take the charitable position here and start by trying to decipher Portland’s motivation here. If you fold your eyes, you can at least understand why they could be interested in the holidays specifically:
- Portland was better than you think in the section. They went 13-14 after the stars rupture with the defense n ° 4 in the Nba. The Blazers are not suitors, but they are not oil tankers either.
- They used the overall choice n ° 7 in 2022 Shaedon Sharpe and the overall choice n ° 3 in 2023 Henderson scoot. None of the two could obtain the offensive use they needed with Simons engulfing the goods. Sharpe is eligible for extension. Henderson will be in a year. The Blazers must discover, once and for all, what they have in these young guards and if it is a long -term viable base. Now the offense belongs to them entirely. The holidays can be listed as a goalkeeper, but again, he probably defends the best now. If he is the small starting striker or even the bench (who, with Deni Avdija And TOUMANI CAMARA In place, he should probably), he does not remove anything from the table even with two other guards next to him.
- Jrue Holiday is a venerated teammate. He is the only player to win the teammate for the year of Twyman-Stokes three times. He won the Nba Deprive twice twice, and he has just been appointed champion of social justice of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the NBA 2024-25 season. He is one of the great humans of the NBA, the perfect absolute mentor for a younger locker room. Think of who has just won the championship. How Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s The experience of Oklahoma City begins? Next to Chris Paul. Portland probably hopes that the holidays will find himself on Henderson and Sharpe in the same way.
All this can be true. These are potentially reasonable motivations. But these are relatively modest objectives that could have been achieved at a much lower price. You can find good veterans of the locker room without committing three years and $ 104 million to a unique player to injuries during his seasons from 35 to 37 years old. Just sign Garrett temple for the minimum. Their head coach is Chauncey Billups. They should be set with regard to the mentoring of legendary guards.
How much the holidays make the Blazers better? Probably less than they think. Their attack has always ranked 20th even in their overvoltage of post-store break, and it was with Simons in place. They took a step back in terms of creation and shooting here, and these areas were not that Portland was really equipped to step back. Portland ranked 17th at the attempted rate of 3 points and 26th as a percentage of 3 points last season. Holiday was a shooter from top to bottom for his entire career, and last year, he fell below the average of the Deep League.
Defensively, despite an inevitable decrease in age, it is always good and switches. If Portland puts it, Avdija and Camara on the ground, they will be able to make a lot of changes and generate significant ball pressure. Defense will be good. But it was already good. Now think of the Western Conference as a whole.
THE Thunder Don’t go anywhere. THE Rocket just exchanged for Kevin during. THE Lakers will get a center. THE Warriors have room to improve. THE Mower I just had a major rebound season. Nikola Jokić still lives in Denver. THE Timberwolves Consecutive finals of the Western Conference. And if all this is not enough, Victor Wembanyama is imminent. These things are never as simple as listing lists in a given conference of the most talented at least. Injuries occur. Unexpected calamities ruin the seasons. But on paper, the Blazers are … probably a game team? And even then, they compete with teams like Dallas, Memphis and Sacramento. It is not given that they sneak even in the top 10.
So the real advantage here seems quite limited. The drawback, however? It’s much more serious. First of all, the Blazers had tracks around 50 million dollars in the 2026 ceiling space. It’s now gone. The holidays occupy most of this space. Second, Portland already had too much money to a decline wing and veteran in Jerami concession. Now they have another on vacation, and together they present significant financial problems in the future.
Now, during the 2027-28 campaign, they are in the grip for more than $ 73 million in combined wages on vacation in his 37-year-old season and are subvented in his age of 33. Does this seem optimal for a young team constituted ostensibly around young people? Remember that Sharpe is eligible for the extension now and Henderson will be in a year. In the best case in which the two burst and obtain heavy extensions, these holiday contracts and subsidies make construction around them more difficult, unless they can be used as expired transactions in trades. With Camara also due to a new contract in the summer of 2026 or 2027, Portland could become shocking in the near future.
Speaking of Grant, we should probably simply touch the way Portland tends to work with its veterans. The Blazers have developed a dangerous habit in the Joe Cronin era to hold them for too long. Damian Lillard is an example of a manual. The whole world knew that Portland should have moved it in 2021. Portland waited for two more years and obtained less. Last off -season, The Jovan Buha of athletics said Portland wanted two first round choices in a possible subsidy trade. Now he is on a fairly negative contract.
If Simons had been moved, let’s say, a year ago, when it became clear that Henderson and Sharpe needed minutes and shots, they could probably have left with a first round or two choice. His buying team would have obtained a younger version of him with a more attached team control. You tell me that it would not have called on Orlando, who has just given up four Choice of first round for Desmond Bane in a similar role? But Portland acts constantly too late with regard to veterans in movement, and they almost always end up paying the price.
This does not mean that it cannot be a successful business. There is frankly no price that the Blazers would not be or should not pay to transform Henderson and Sharpe into stars that they hope to be. If the holidays end up helping them bring them to them? This business is always a victory. But we will never know too much if they got there because of the holidays if they were ready to break in larger roles. We know how dangerous costly contracts are like this can be in the era of the apron. So, well considered, Portland has almost certainly paid to achieve its goals.