You Won't Believe Former UCLA Star's Massive Impact

Former UCLA Bruins star Jrue Holiday has an even bigger impact on the Boston Celtics than you could imagine.

Nov 24, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday (4) waits for game action to resume during the second half against the Minnesota Timberwolves at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

It wasn't until last season that former UCLA Bruins star Jrue Holiday finally began earning the type of respect he deserves.

Holiday won his second NBA championship last June, but this time, it came with the big-market Boston Celtics, so his brilliance was on full display.

While Holiday is a terrific all-around player, he is most known for his defensive prowess, and going into last year, he joined a Celtics team that was already outstanding defensively.

But Holiday's on-off splits this year show just how dominant he really is on that end of the floor.

Through the first month and change of the 2024-25 NBA campaign, Boston is allowing 108.1 points per 100 possessions when Holiday is on the floor and 117.1 points per 100 possessions when he is on the bench.

That means the Celtics are a full nine points per 100 possessions better defensively when Holiday is in the game. That is a truly amazing statistic and is a testament to just how phenomenal the UCLA legend is on that end of the court.

Think about it: Boston has a ton of great defenders on its roster, but Holiday is so good that the team's defense still plummets when he is sitting.

Holiday isn't even having the greatest year offensively, as he is averaging 12.2 points per game on 45.9/34.8/90.9 shooting splits. But his value to the Celtics transcends his offensive repertoire.

We saw that last year when Holiday was able to defend a wide variety of players during the playoffs thanks to his unique blend of size, strength, athleticism and veteran savvy.

Remember how difficult he made life for Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving in the finals? And that was after Irving had torched an incredibly tough Minnesota Timberwolves defense.

Holiday was always a good player, but now, he is starting to get Hall of Fame consideration in spite of only earning a pair of All-Star appearances since entering the NBA in 2011.

That's how great Holiday is defensively and how much of a massive impact he truly has.

We'll see if Holiday can help lead the Celtics to a second straight NBA title this season.

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