The Boston Celtics made a big trade on Sunday.
They traded for Jrue Holiday after he was included in the blockbuster Damian Lillard trade. The Portland Trail Blazers weren’t interested in keeping him, so they dealt him to the Celtics for center Robin Williams III, guard Malcolm Brogdon, a 2024 first-round pick, and a 2029 first-round pick.
Holiday now joins a Celtics team that already has Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis.
Before the trade went down, NBA executives feared that Holiday would end up with the Celtics and sure enough, those fears were realized.
“I got texts from a couple of non-partisan front office executives that were in the vein of, ‘This is what I worried about for the Bucks when they made the Lillard trade.’ That Boston would come in and get Jrue Holiday, and that the Bucks may have inadvertently helped their biggest rival more than they realized they did, and maybe more than they helped themselves,” ESPN’s Zach Lowe said, (first transcribed by NESN).
Holiday averaged 19 points and five rebounds while shooting 48% from the floor this past year.
He’ll look to up those numbers when the Celtics kick off their regular season on Oct. 25.