Jrue Holiday has had a borderline Hall-of-Fame career.
In 15+ NBA seasons, he has six All-Defensive Team nominations (three First-Team and three Second-Team), two NBA Championships (one with the Milwaukee Bucks prior to last season’s win with the Celtics), and an Olympic gold medal. While he is still a serviceable point guard this season, he is showing signs of decline.
He has three more years left on his contract, and barring a contract restructure, is due $30+ million each year per Spotrac. The Celtics, with a new owner in the near future, may look to trade his contract and get more cost-controlled assets. A Holiday trade would hurt the team, especially on the defensive end where he and Derrick White form one of the league’s best defensive backcourt duos, but he may just be too expensive to keep.
Additionally, the team already has a replacement on the roster with the emergence of potential sixth-man-of-the-year Payton Pritchard.
BREAKING—Payton Pritchard has the most 3-pointers off the bench in a single season in NBA History, per @NBA.
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) March 16, 2025
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Payton Pritchard's Surge Seals Jrue Holiday's Offseason Fate With Celtics
Pritchard was drafted in the first round of the 2020 draft and has seen his role with the team expand every year. This season, Pritchard has been the perfect sparkplug off the bench contributing 14 points, 3 assists, and 3 rebounds a night.
On Saturday, he also set the NBA record for the most three-pointers in a season for a bench player. In addition, Pritchard has a bargain of a contract compared to what he is producing on the court. This season, he is due only $6.6 million and he is signed for the next three seasons, making $7.2 million, $7.7 million, and $8.3 million respectively. In the modern NBA, these cheap salaries are vital to teams, especially title contenders such as the Celtics who are paying multiple players tens of millions of dollars for multiple years.
The idea of trading Holiday and inserting Pritchard into the starting lineup alongside the league’s best wing duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, with Kristaps Porzingis roaming the paint, would give the rest of the league problems for years to come. And it will bring Celtics fans to their feet knowing that their team will remain title contenders not just next year, but for the foreseeable future.