Celtics, Blazers Make Major Change to Jrue Holiday, Anfernee Simons Trade

The Boston Celtics and Portland Trail Blazers have finalized their trade, sending Anfernee Simons to Boston and Jrue Holiday to Portland, but it has been altered from the original agreement.

There will no longer be two second-round picks heading to the Celtics, as this deal is now strictly a 1-for-1 player swap.

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The Anfernee Simons-Jrue Holiday trade is now official, without the previously reported second-round picks going from Portland to Boston. The final deal is a straight 1-for-1 player swap. pic.twitter.com/LBNdrT15Co
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) July 7, 2025

According to Aaron Fentress of Oregonlive.com, Holiday's medicals revealed nothing substantial enough to warrant negating the trade, but still enough to change the terms of the deal.

Also per Fentress, Holiday is said to be healthy and will be working out to prepare for the start of training camp in September.

Simons, who turned 26 years old last month, has one year on his current deal and is due to make $27.7 million. Holiday, 35, has three years and $104.4 million left on his contract, taking home $32.4 million this upcoming season.

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Simons will look to do what he can to help fill the void of Jayson Tatum's absence as he continues to recover from his Achilles injury, leaving him out for most, if not all of the 2025-26 regular season.

In seven NBA seasons, Simons has shown tons of growth as a shooting guard, but still has a ways to go after a slightly down year last season. His latest campaign with Portland consisted of 19.3 points, 4.8 assists, and 0.9 steals per game on 42.6% shooting from the field.

Perhaps the change of scenery and increased role will be enough to spark a positive change for the young star as the Celtics roster continues to take different shape seemingly by the day.

The pair of second-round picks that were originally included will certainly be missed in Boston, but there is still a lot of time left in the offseason to collect more assets, and further finalize the new look roster.

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