Jrue Holiday has found a long-term home with the Boston Celtics, striking a deal that will keep the veteran combo guard on the league’s most dominant team for at least four more years.
According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Holiday and the Celtics have agreed to a four-year, $135 million extension.
He is set to decline the $37.3 million player option he has for the 2024-25 season, with the extension kicking in and keeping him in Boston through June 2028.
With the new deal being an average annual value of $33.8 million, this move actually saves the franchise a few million on next year’s payroll when accounting for the salary difference and luxury tax penalties that would result from a higher annual figure (if he opted in).
Holiday joins LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Al Horford as the only players to ink a fully guaranteed contract north of $100 million at age 33 or older.
Currently finishing his 15th season, Holiday has started all 68 games he’s played for Boston and is still one of the premier wing defenders on the planet. Veteran scorers, notably Kevin Durant and Paul George, are still quick to name him as their toughest cover in isolation situations.
While he’s certainly not the same force he was in New Orleans or even the 2021 title run with Milwaukee, Holiday’s agility and lateral quickness haven’t dipped enough to warrant hesitation about this deal — at least in the short term.
Offensively, Holiday has more than bought into a new role. It has been a match made in heaven for head coach Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics staff, who didn’t need to implement another score-first player after last year’s playoff collapse.
They needed an organizer, a table-setter, and a more reliable catch-and-shoot threat when Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown bend opposing defenses or draw two defenders on the ball.
Holiday has checked every box, and then some. This season, his usage has decreased nearly nine percentage points, something you never see from stars of his caliber. Particularly ones that still have plenty left in the tank. That degree of selflessness — or willingness to adapt — typically only comes from players in their late thirties who realize their window is limited and still want to capture a title (Holiday’s teammate, Horford, is a prime example).
In terms of average touches, Holiday is only at 54 per game compared to the 73.1 last year with the Bucks. He’s also getting off the ball quicker — he’s down to 3.6 average seconds per touch, more than a 30% reduction from last year.
Holiday is now the Swiss Army knife for the Celtics, transforming into different roles depending on the matchup or who’s out of the lineup.
Perhaps most importantly, his perimeter shooting has become a major weapon for a team that loves to prioritize (and often hunt) the most coveted shots in basketball. He’s in the 91st percentile in effective field goal percentage (eFG%) among all combo guards, per Cleaning The Glass. That includes being an absolute light-outs corner sniper this season, shooting 55-of-91 on corner triples (60.4%).
In fact, Holiday is on pace to become the fourth player in Celtics franchise history to attempt at least 300 total 3-pointers while connecting on 43% or better. He would join Eddie House in 2009, Ray Allen in 2011, and Horford last season when the Celtics center seemingly never missed.
This extension would be a massive win for any player in Holiday’s situation, given that he’s turning 34 in June and his team is primed to be a top-tier contender for the length of the contract. Add in the fact he didn’t have to sacrifice much money or leave a lot on the table, and it’s a no-brainer.
On the team side, even if it might seem like an overpay during the back half of the contract, you have to do what it takes to keep an elite core together.
Plus, it always helps to eliminate potential distractions in April.
By agreeing to terms now, a week before the playoffs, both Holiday and the Celtics are able to put contract talks in the rearview and focus solely on their mission ahead: Being the first to 16 postseason wins and claiming the franchise’s 18th championship.