Jrue Holiday, Celtics agree to four-year extension

Jrue Holiday, Celtics agree to four-year extension

Jrue Holiday has agreed to a four-year, $135 million extension with the Boston Celtics, ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report Wednesday.

BREAKING: After arriving in a blockbuster offseason trade, Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday has agreed on a four-year, $135 million contract extension, his agent Jason Glushon of @GlushonSM tells ESPN. pic.twitter.com/Llln2yczSI

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 10, 2024

Holiday was in the fourth year of a four-year, $135 million extension when he was a part of the Milwaukee Bucks in April of 2021. He originally had a player option in the last year of his deal that Holiday declined.

According to the old CBA, players were not eligible to decline a player option and replace it with a lower salary. Under the new CBA, that rule is no longer in effect, which Holiday became the first player to take advantage of, according to HoopsHype capologist Yossi Gozlan. Holiday’s player option originally had a $37.4 million base salary with a $39.4 million cap hit; his new first-year salary with this new extension is estimated to be worth around $30.1 million, according to Spotrac, which saves plenty of luxury tax dollars for Boston.

The previous CBA did not allow players to decline an option and replace it with a lower salary amount in an extension.

Jrue Holiday becomes the first player to take advantage of the new rule change and avoids 2024 free agency. https://t.co/puMsDXE8VY

— Yossi Gozlan (@YossiGozlan) April 10, 2024

Not including bonuses, Holiday had a base salary of $37.3M in 2024-25.

The first year of the extension will reduce his salary to $30M, saving Boston over $35M in luxury tax penalties. https://t.co/evfBYAWgQh

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) April 10, 2024

In 2024-25, Jaylen Brown–who would be entering the first year of his $304 million supermax–Jayson Tatum, Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis roughly 70 percent of the team’s cap and 102 percent of the league’s $141 million cap, a number that would have been more drastic if Holiday exercised his player option.

Nevertheless, the Celtics are projected to be a second-apron team by $3 million with 12 rostered players, according to Spotrac. If you’re a second-apron team, you better be a contender. The Celtics are, which makes any Holiday long-term extension easier to stomach.

Though they will have interesting decisions to make in future seasons. Tatum will likely get the supermax (for more than Brown) this summer. Do they extend Derrick White? If so, for how much? What decisions do they make on Porzingis, Al Horford and Payton Pritchard in the coming seasons?!?

I like this deal for Holiday because it unquestionably extends their title window with what he provides defensively. But Boston better capitalize within these first 2-3 years before that extension–and its cap situation–rear its ugly head.

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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.

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