The Boston Celtics may be considered a title contender this season, but their path to capturing their 18th franchise championship got a lot harder when the Milwaukee Bucks swung a trade to acquire Damian Lillard.
The Bucks managed to trade for Lillard despite his insistence on landing with another Eastern Conference power in the Miami Heat.
With Lillard on their roster, Milwaukee instantly became the championship favorite and put pressure on Boston to try and keep up in the arms race.
The Celtics have one of the best rosters in the league led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but even they will have trouble defending the Antetokounmpo-Lillard pairing.
However, the other by-product of the Lillard trade is where Jrue Holiday ends up, as the Portland Trail Blazers have no intention of keeping him.
Boston has been linked as a potential suitor for Holiday and although they’ve inquired about the point guard it appears they have yet to come close to Portland’s asking price, via Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.
The Celtics maintain interest in trading for Jrue Holiday, but there’s currently a significant gap in negotiations with the Trail Blazers, per @AdamHimmelsbach.
A potential package from Boston could feature Malcolm Brogdon, Jordan Walsh, Sam Hauser and draft capital. pic.twitter.com/Clo5h8jDI6
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) September 30, 2023
Holiday may have struggled in last season’s playoffs, but he’s the rare player that all 30 NBA teams could use because of his ball-handling and sturdy defense.
Boston lost a lot of their perimeter defense when they shipped out Marcus Smart in exchange for Kristaps Porzingis, so trading for Holiday makes a lot of sense on paper.
However, the proposed package doesn’t seem very appealing on paper no matter how many draft picks they throw in.
Other contenders have also registered interest in trading for Holiday, so the Trail Blazers should be able to extract a pretty penny for him.
