UCLA Men's Basketball: All-Star Bruin Jrue Holiday Traded To East Contender
Jrue Holiday has now changed zip codes twice this offseason.
The former UCLA Pac-10 All-Freshman honoree, most recently an All-Star and All-Defensive Teamer on a top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks team in 2022-23, has been flipped from the Portland Trail Blazers to the Boston Celtics, sources inform Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Boston is shipping out oft-injured big man Robert Williams III, oft-injured reigning Sixth Man of the Year Malcolm Brogdon, draft rights to the Golden State Warriors' top-four-protected 2024 first round pick, and its own unprotected first round selection in 2029 to Portland in the deal.
Woj writes that Boston numbered among the top teams to which Holiday had hoped to be dealt, along with the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers and the Philadelphia 76ers -- the team that drafted him out of Westwood in 2009. With the exception of the Bulls, all these clubs with Holiday could have had legitimate chances at helping the 6'4" vet compete for his second NBA title during his year-34 season in 2023-24. Holiday may have been able to help elevate Chicago to a tough first round playoff out, but its hard to see the club genuinely being able to contend even with him on the roster.
Portland initially acquired Holiday as part of a three-team trade with Phoenix that sent All-NBA point guard Damian Lillard to perhaps Boston's toughest rival in the East, the Milwaukee Bucks. Now, the Blazers' haul for offloading Lillard, big man Jusuf Nurkic, and guards Nassir Little and Keon Johnson is promising center Deandre Ayton, Williams, Brogdon (who could still have trade value), the two aforementioned first rounders, and pick swaps with Milwaukee in 2028 and 2030, when Lillard and fellow Bucks All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo will both be deep into their 30s.
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