The Milwaukee Bucks may have unintentionally created room for their rivals to construct a super squad last summer when they traded incumbent All-Star and All-Defensive squad combo guard Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for All-Star point guard Damian Lillard. Holiday was quickly acquired by the Boston Celtics, who had also grabbed big man Kristaps Porzingis from the Washington Wizards earlier this offseason.
Boston has emerged as the clear favourite to reach the NBA Finals this season in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics (57-15) lead the Bucks (46-25) in the conference standings by 10.5 games.
Holidays have been an important part of that. Though he was not named an All-Star this season after taking a step back as a scorer for a starry Celtics team led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Holiday and Derrick White have become one of the league’s most dangerous backcourt tandems, and both could make the 2024 All-Defensive Team. Holiday is averaging 12.8 points on.485/.445/.833 shooting, 5.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game.
During a recent interview on “The Draymond Green Show,” Holiday recounted host and Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green, who defeated the Celtics before Holiday in the 2022 Finals, how he learned he was being moved.
“You go into your team’s training facility every week throughout the offseason. I’m already in Milwaukee because my children attend school there, and they’ve started school,” Holiday explained. “I had a day off on Wednesday and am now taking a nap. [I have] my Apple Watch on. When I see a call from [the Bucks’] general manager, I say, ‘I’ll call him back.’ I’m also taking a nap. That’s an excellent one.
