After being sent to the Trail Blazers as part of the Damian Lillard blockbuster, Jrue Holiday is likely the next guard to be traded by a Portland team seeking draft capital and/or players who fit the club’s timeline. The Blazers are expected to be active in the next few days in attempting to find a landing spot for the two-time All-Star and there’s a “good chance” he’s on the move by Monday, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The market for Holiday, a tenacious defender, is already robust. As we wrote on Thursday, the Clippers, Heat, Bulls, Celtics, Knicks, Pacers, and Sixers are among the teams that could explore acquiring him.
Sam Vecenie of The Athletic looks at several hypothetical landing spots for Holiday and considers what the trade package might look like in each scenario. In his view, the Clippers are the most viable destination for Holiday, with an easy-to-build package consisting of matching salaries, young players and draft picks. While the Clippers have been tied to Sixers guard James Harden for some time, Vecenie reasons that Holiday could be more appealing, since he’s extension-eligible while Harden is not, due to his two-year deal last offseason.
Of course, the rumors linking Harden and the Clippers make a three-team deal that sends Harden to L.A, Holiday to Philadelphia, and salaries, picks and other assets to Portland easy to imagine, Vecenie writes. However, Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports says that he’s hearing no real traction on any such move and that it will be difficult for Philadelphia to land Holiday.
The Heat, Knicks and Warriors are among other teams who can put together reasonable packages for Holiday, Vecenie writes, with Golden State providing his favorite potential landing spot for the guard.
We have more Jrue Holiday-related notes:
- The Kings are one of the few teams who will not be in on the Holiday sweepstakes, tweets Sam Amick of The Athletic. According to Amick, the Kings “looked at” the possibility, but will not pursue the guard. While Holiday makes sense for just about every team in the league, it stands to reason that the Kings, who seem to have a set backcourt rotation, wouldn’t want to shake things up this close to the season.
- Indiana is a dark horse candidate to trade for Holiday. IndyStar’s Dustin Dopirak explores the subject, weighing the pros and cons of the Pacers acquiring Holiday. While adding the former All-Star would give Indiana a secondary ball-handler and shooting, along with high-level defense, it might not be the best idea for the team to sacrifice draft capital and/or young players at this stage of its timeline. With Holiday potentially becoming a free agent next offseason, it’s also possible he would be a rental and, if not, he would be costly at 33 years old, Dopirak writes. Ultimately, Dopirak believes the Pacers shouldn’t get desperate to acquire Holiday, even if he would boost their playoff odds this season.
- As noted above, New York makes some level of sense as a suitor for Holiday’s services. Fred Katz and Mike Vorkunov write about the topic, arguing that while Holiday would help in a major way on the court, the cost to acquire him would be great. Ian Begley of SNY writes that if the Knicks did acquire Holiday, they’d do so with the idea of extending him.
Barrett, Fournier and Dallas’ 2024 1st should work as a fit for both the Knicks and the Blazers.
Barrett fits Portland’s timeline better, Fournier is the expiring contract, and the 1st is top 10 protected, so it should convey. Adding in another protected 1st or a couple of unprotected 2nd’s is still worth the cost if it gets the deal done.
Knicks could move Grimes to the three and give Holiday the two.
Interesting. Adding a first Rd is a better deal than they got for Dame. A 23yr old avg 20ppg for a 32yr old on an expiring contract is a good deal. But I could see this move, Holiday is a guy This would love to have. Does make them pretty small though with Brunson at the 2 and Hart or Quickley at the 3
Barrett, Fournier and a 1st round pick for a player on an expiring contract??????
I don’t see the Sixers coming away with Jrue. I think he ends up with the Celtics, Heat, Clippers, Warriors like most..
I think an intriguing spot would be the Bulls. They trade Portland back their 24 1st (1-14 protected). Trade a 27 FRP and 2 SRP. Ball and Pat Williams.
Going to have to pay more to dump Ball, since he may not even play again.
Fit is a little funky. They just invested 17M in White and Carter. And they have Caruso at 9.4M.
You run Jrue, LaVine, Craig, DeRozan, Vuc
Bench is very guard heavy tho.. Carter, White, Caruso, Ayo, Terry, Jones, Phillip’s, and Drummond is the only Big.
But if the Bulls are intent on remaining competitive, this would be the move to make. You will have an opportunity to move one or two of those guards come the deadline, injuries are inevitable.
Holiday would be a great pickup for the Bulls. But just to make the salary work, it would have to be Ball and two of Williams, White or Caruso, Portland probably wanting White and Williams. But might be worth it considering DeRozan is a free agent
Caruso has family in Portland
Does he really? Well then it’s a wrap
Bulls had no draft picks this year. Now you have them trading 2 future firsts and seconds, and Pat Williams, the #4 overall pick in the draft a couple of years back. All this to add Jrue Holiday to a team that would finish at best 6th in the East. 6th in the East with a pair of players in Holiday and DeRozan who are headed toward their mid 30s in age. Now you have an aging roster and no draft capital to rebuild with.
POR will have a deeper market (x 2) for Holiday in January. I can see LAC, MIA and/or PHI trying to get out ahead of it before the season, with the first two having a shot at it. I can’t remember the last bidding war for a player at the trade deadline. The past few seasons, it’s been the opposite, a buyer’s market at the deadline. Holiday (if he’s healthy and playing as he did last year) will almost certainly inspire one. POR shouldn’t be afraid of that.
I can see Portland right now sitting back and saying OK who wants to over pay us for Holiday. When a front runner loses one of their top allstars Portland will get over paid for Holiday.
That is always the sentiment at the beginning of a year but it rarely materializes. problem is, it can work the other way. Say Lavine goes down, now Bulls decide to unload DeRozan. Or Pelicans don’t have a good season and look to unload McCollum. Or the Clippers season is in shambles and they decide to finally unload one of or bothe Kawhi and PG. Now there are more options besides just Holiday, what happens if Holiday himself goes down? Yea, it could be beneficial to wait, but it could also make things worse
Holding until the deadline is a great default position. Demand can skyrocket due to injuries or reality checks, but, either way, its almost certain that there will be a very limited supply of players of this caliber (if any others) available at the deadline for future assets.
If I was the 76s, I would rather have MCW….
Trading for mostly retreads and not much time left players would be a waste for Portland. They have no leverage.
His value is much higher at the deadline. By that time the fantasies being entertained with certain teams will have shatterd greatly.
The only team that makes sense right now is the one no one is talking about.
The Jazz.
What’s the deal?
The jazz didn’t pull the trigger on Dame and will likely just be a facilitator if that because portland struggles to make trades with teams in the west like the jazz .
The jazz have the draft capital for sure but doubt they would just give three players and a pick. The jazz have team friendly contracts on their players and will develop and wait for what the jazz want. Jazz want luka doncic. They have a luka already but they want there real deal now. If mavs implode then jazz prepared to pounce.
I do like holiday for jazz but doubt it happens. Herro more likely then holiday. Will see…
Originally I said Holiday to Knicks
But as a Sixers fan I wouldn’t mind getting him and shipping Harden out either.
Sixers: Jrue Holiday and Robert Covington
LA: James Harden and PJ Tucker
Blazers: Marcus Morris, Terrance Mann, Amor Coffey and 2 first round picks (both from LA)
Sixers line up
Maxey Holiday Covington Harris Embiid
Beverly Melton Oubre House Reed
Maxey gets to step up into a larger role, Tobias gets a bigger role on offence too. Defensively Jrue is a huge addition, RoCo does the same job as PJ but is a better fit. Off the bench we look alright too. Joel should average about 30, with Jrue Maxey and Tobias all capable of averaging around 20 points each.
LA line up (in my opinion)
Harden PG Kawhi PJ Zubac
Russ Powell Batum Martin Plumblee
Think Russ plays a bench role as he can do it all and provide impact. Harden is a better player and scoring threat and allows you to have PJ start and add more defence. Solid enough depth and as always it’ll be about health with this team. With PG and Kawhi always being rested/injured it’s important to keep Batum and Powell which they do here
Portland line up
Scoot Simons Grant Morris Ayton
Mann Sharpe Thybulle Murray …
Morris gives them a solid veteran leader which they need as a young side. He’s also on an expiring deal. Mann is a solid young back up point guard who could really earn himself a solid role. Coffey is just there as salary filler and then they get two first round picks which is what they want.
Clippers would need to give up another $4m in salary. Also Holiday cant be traded for 2 months with other players, but that’s still early in the season, so this is a possibility
Some teams are likely holding until trade deadline. If the Raptors are struggling they will need to move OG and Siakam. Spend on Jrue early or wait on that situation? I do think Jrue gets moved before the season, but he would still play for Portland if no deal.
Holiday to the Clips for Morris, RoCo and Mann + 2 picks, Portland then waives RoCo
Draft picks are the price for Jrue and $$$, otherwise it won’t happen until the trade deadline, because he can’t be traded with others for 2 months.
Just trade him without other players
Ah the Athletic… I read so much from there without actually ever visiting it…