Jrue Holiday Is Reportedly Pissed About Being Traded To The Blazers

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Safe to say, it's been an emotional 48 hours for the Celtics and their fans. As I said in the KP blog, even though we all knew this was coming, actually living through it stinks out loud. The NBAPA agreeing to this bullshit CBA might be the dumbest thing they've ever done, but that's a different discussion for a different day.

At the moment, we as fans are all still sort of in limbo. While Brad Stevens has made the necessary moves to get the Celtics under the 2nd apron while also accumulating talent and draft picks, this is still the early stage of the entire process. These things are done in waves, the order of operations is important, and I think you're kidding yourself if you think things will remain as they are at this moment. It may be small moves, but there will be more moves. That's partially what makes this all so stressful. We're getting bits and pieces of the overall plan, but until all the dust settles and we see where things end up, it's hard to know what to think. The only thing we know at this moment is the Celts had to get under the 2nd apron, and they are under the 2nd apron.

While we wait for the next move, we're also now starting to get the leaks from those involved in the trades we've seen. As you should know by now, whenever Steve Bullpet, a legendary Celtics beat writer, puts out a story with information, it's worth your time to read and most likely isn't full of bullshit. This is not a float-out-rumors-to-go-viral type of reporter. When you want to know the truth, you read Bulpett.

Which is why it's hard to ignore his latest story

Holiday was also expected to be a casualty of second apron concerns, so he had to know the possibility was very real that he’d be dealt away from Boston, a place he’d developed ties with both the team and the community.

According to one source close to the situation, Holiday is “pissed” he’s going to Portland.

“Now, if he winds up staying there, I’m sure he’ll be the professional he’s always been and make a positive contribution,” said the source. “But he’s not happy with this deal. I’ll be surprised if Portland doesn’t move him on if they can, because right now he does not want to go there.

“I’m sure if he has to go to Portland, he’ll end up going and it’ll be OK, but right now they want to be somewhere else. But with that contract, it’s not going to be that easy.”

I mean I get it. When he was in this position back in 2023, he made it very clear he did not want to play in Portland, which is how he ended up on the Celtics in the first place. So it's not exactly a stretch to assume that 2 years later his thoughts would remain the same. At this stage of his career you can't fault Holiday for wanting to play for a contender who has a chance to make a deep playoff run, and while the Blazers are on the rise, they aren't exactly at that level even with Jrue Holiday in the mix. With early reports suggesting that the Blazers indeed to keep Jrue and not flip him, I think it's a pretty normal human reaction to be pissed.

At the same time,

The second Holiday signed his 4/134M extension, we all knew what that meant. If we knew what it meant, then I imagine Holiday also knew what it meant. When the time came to cut costs and get under the 2nd apron, he was going to be one of the guys on the move. The return for something like that is $134M guaranteed dollars (player option in the final year). Given his age and contract, it's not as if there was going to be a huge market, and at that point, you're sort of at the mercy of Brad Stevens and whatever he feels is the best route to go. I'm sure if he could have sent Jrue to a preferred destination he would have, Brad fucking loves Jrue Holiday, but for all we know the Blazers deal was the best option. It gave them a young player with potential for the next era and draft picks. If it doesn't work out, Simons is an expiring contract that can be flipped. That's just the price of doing business.

In some ways, this situation is also on Jrue. He could have extended at a lower number. If his extension was say $25M a year and not in the mid 30s, he's absolutely not a Portland Trail Blazer right now. My guess is they gave him that max extension in good faith, knowing that they were going to have to move him, and something like this might be possible.

So while it sucks that this trade happened and that Jrue is reportedly pissed about it, none of this is news. This isn't like the Isaiah Thomas trade where they moved him out of nowher before extending him. Holiday got his max, this is just the other side of the coin.

He's still a Celtics legend for life, and my hope is that the Blazers do take another leap and he gets to play meaningful minutes there. Plus Rob is still around, so getting to hang out with him seems like a win. And hey, crazier things have happened once we get to the summer, so maybe things in POR change and they do end up moving him. Either way, I'll always be thankful for Jrue's contribution to Banner 18