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Celtics acquire Jrue Holiday from Blazers

Jrue Holiday heads to Boston days after he was dealt from Milwaukee in the Damian Lillard trade.

From NBA.com News Services

The star guard is expected to team up with Jayson Tatum in Boston for the 2023-24 season.

All-Star guard Jrue Holiday is headed to Boston in a trade with Portland, the team announced Sunday afternoon. The trade comes just days after Holiday was dealt to the Blazers in a blockbuster deal that sent All-Star guard Damian Lillard to the Bucks.

Celtics receive:

  • Jrue Holiday

Blazers receive: 

  • Malcolm Brogdon
  • Robert Williams
  • 2024 1st-round pick (via Warriors)
  • 2029 unprotected 1st-round pick (via Celtics)

 

What this means: Boston lands one of the top defensive guards in Holiday. The veteran guard is a five-time All-Defensive selection — a first-teamer on that team last season — who has appeared on Kia Defensive Player of the Year ballots in each of the last three years.

Holiday moves into the starting point guard spot in Boston that had been held in recent seasons by Marcus Smart, who was sent to Memphis during the offseason in a three-team trade (also including Washington) that brought Kristaps Porzingis to the Celtics.

The 33-year-old Holiday was also an All-Star last year for the first time in a decade and is coming off a season in which he averaged 19.3 points and 7.4 assists, both better than his career averages of 16.4 points and 6.5 assists.

How we got here: Flipping Holiday for Brogdon, Williams and more Draft capital means the Blazers have turned Lillard into four players (with Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara also included as part of Wednesday’s deal), three first-round picks and two pick swaps. That’s a strong haul for Lillard, the seven-time All-Star who was officially welcomed to Milwaukee by his new team on Saturday.

Holiday helped lead the Bucks to the 2021 NBA Championship title by averaging 17.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 8.7 assists in 23 postseason contests (all starts). Less than a month after winning the 2021 NBA Finals, Holiday won a Gold Medal with Celtics’ guard Jayson Tatum and Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics where he averaged 11.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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