Jayson Tatum reminisces on Jrue Holiday trade 8 months later

Jayson Tatum reminisces on Jrue Holiday trade 8 months later

The Boston Celtics recently became the 14th team in NBA History to win 80 combined games in a single season, going 64-18 in the regular season followed by a dominant 16-3 record in the postseason to capture the franchise’s 18th-ever title. It marked Boston’s first title under their core of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum after years of coming up shy, but they couldn’t have done so without help from Brad Stevens and the front office.

Last summer, the Celtics struck gold by landing 7-foot-3 big Kristaps Porzingis in a trade with the Wizards … plus netting two first-round picks in the process. It shipped Marcus Smart, the quintessential Boston Celtic, over to the Memphis Grizzlies, but it was a calculated risk Boston was willing to make.

Though the biggest move came right before the start of the 2023-24 season, when it landed Jrue Holiday from the Portland Trail Blazers after he was traded from Milwaukee in the Damian Lillard trade.

Even eight months later, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum reminisced on the trade.

“At first I was like, ‘I can’t believe Milwaukee let this happen.’ So, thanks to the Bucks,” Tatum said in an interview alongside Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson with Tommy Alter on Old Man & The Three. “I knew we had a really good chance. To win a championship, a lot of things have to go right. You have to stay healthy, you have to be on the same page, you have to get along. A little bit of luck is involved. But knowing Jrue had championship DNA and I won a gold medal with him, I knew what kind of player and person he was. 

“I knew it was going to make our team better. We already got KP (Kristaps Porzingis) and we already had a really good team. So, when we got Jrue, I was pretty confident about what we could accomplish.”

The Celtics were lucky that happened. They executed the deal flawlessly, but they were lucky. When trades are either seismic or one-sided, one side is oftentimes lucky. Boston was indeed that.

Holiday went on to average 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists on 48.0 percent shooting, including a career-best 42.9 percent from 3-point range and 83.3 percent from the free-throw line. With him, the stats don’t matter. He’s a bulldog defensively and a player willing to take a step back offensively.

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He’s finished on All-NBA first- or second-team in six of the last seven seasons, including three first-team honors in 2017-18, 2020-21 and 2022-23. He can guard multiple positions, has excellent hands to generate deflections and steals at the point-of-attack–averaging 1.7 career steals per 75 possessions–and is incredibly strong.

Holiday makes winning plays, and resulted in him winning his second career title. He also picked the best season to have the best postseason of his career, averaging 13.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.1 steals on 50.3/40.2/95.5 shooting splits, including 16.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.7 dimes on 67.5 percent true shooting over the final two series.

There’s a reason why Jrue Holiday keeps getting asked to play for Team USA in the Olympics despite his numbers being subpar relative to the rest. Don’t forget that.

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