Latest Damian Lillard Trade Development Impacts Jrue Holiday

While there was some speculation that the Damian Lillard trade would not be finalized until the Portland Trail Blazers found a new home for Jrue Holiday, the deal was made official on Wednesday evening. This latest development impacts Holiday, and that impact was broken down by ESPN's Bobby Marks:

Jrue Holiday can be rerouted but can’t be aggregated with other contracts for 2 months.

Washington acquired Chris Paul on June 23 and then traded him again on July 6.

Holiday also can’t be traded until players involved in the trade report and pass physicals. https://t.co/Eih3CRLfBX
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) September 28, 2023

With any Holiday trade now on hold until all players involved in this initial trade report and pass physicals, the former Milwaukee Bucks point guard will not be getting flipped as soon as some expected. It is of course still very likely that Holiday ends up being moved again, perhaps even in the next few days, but that cannot happen until all players in this deal report and pass physicals. As Marks reports, a Holiday deal also cannot be aggregated with other contracts for two months.

This latest development could impact a few different teams, with the LA Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers being the most obvious. Once Holiday was included in the Lillard trade, speculation about a deal between the Trail Blazers, Clippers, and 76ers immediately began. While there were no real talks on such a deal reported anywhere, the framework made too much sense to ignore.

With the 76ers yet to move James Harden, and the Clippers still possessing the assets that would be sent out in such a deal, some iteration of a trade involving Harden to LA, Holiday to Philadelphia, and rebuild assets to the Trail Blazers felt possible after the Lillard trade went down. While such a deal could still be in play at some point, it cannot happen until all players in the Lillard trade report to their new teams and pass physicals, and would have to operate under the contract restrictions detailed by Marks.

While this is a seemingly insignificant holdup, assuming the aforementioned teams would even engage on such a deal, it pushes one possible resolution to the Harden saga even closer to media day and training camp.

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