Happy Celticsversary, Jrue Holiday – CelticsBlog

It’s been one year since the reports surfaced of Jrue Holiday’s trade to the Boston Celtics.

October 1, 2023, was quite the day. I was driving to the gym when I got the notification from Adrian Wojnarowski’s tweet breaking the news. I immediately turned around and sped home to record an instant reaction for the “How ‘Bout Them Celtics” YouTube channel.

Boston had just landed a player who had helped the rival Milwaukee Bucks win an NBA title just three years earlier and had gone to battle against them several times.

At the time, I think we all knew that Holiday was a great fit with the Cs. He was going to replace what Marcus Smart had brought to the team before being traded — and then some. There was also the layer of him bringing some championship experience to a team that had come close to the goal many times, but never quite finished the job.

According to The Ringer’s Mirin Fader, the 34-year-old made it clear, during his first practice at the Auerbach Center, that he was willing to do whatever it took to win, telling his teammates that he was there to “help in any way.”

Holiday delivered on that promise and proved to be the ultimate shapeshifter for Boston (it would feel pretty criminal to not mention Derrick White here too, as he also shapeshifted all year). Whether the Celtics asked Jrue to defend and drill threes (of which he made a career-high 42.9%), or to be the leading scorer in a playoff game, he came through.

Despite logging his lowest usage rate since his rookie season with the Philadelphia 76ers, Holiday was able to make his presence felt every single night. Some players’ frustration with a lack of responsibility on offense would bleed over and affect their defensive effort.

Not Holiday.

He earned his fourth consecutive All-Defensive selection and was named to the league’s Second Team. We got to see him take on unique assignments all season long. Early on, head coach Joe Mazzulla tasked the six-foot-four guard with defending All-Star caliber big men, like Joel Embiid and Julius Randle. It was a task that he took care of just fine, which cemented him as a winner to teammate Al Horford early on.

“For a guy of his stature to come in here and be so willing and genuinely care about winning, I feel like that’s contagious,” Horford told Fader. “It puts us all on notice, and he’s somebody that we respect and that we look up to.”

Horford went on to discuss Holiday’s winning-first approach, which he noticed in the Celtics’ Opening Night win over the New York Knicks.

“He was doing a lot of things that are not going to come on the stats sheet, that are good for the team: making an extra pass when an extra pass needs to be made or covering for us on the defensive end, which he does constantly. … At the end of the day, we won, and that’s all he cares about.”

Winning is undoubtedly a passion for the former UCLA standout. After several months of Bucks fans warning all of us that Jrue was a playoff disappearing act, the guy stepped up and had several memorable outings and clutch moments on the way to Banner 18.

Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

I mean, there was legitimate discussion about him potentially being named Eastern Conference Finals MVP. He opened the series against the Indiana Pacers with a 28-point Game 1, in which Boston won in overtime. Later in Games 3 & 4, the veteran guard showed his savvy when he rose to the occasion with massive plays in the closing minutes.

In the former, he sank a clutch and-one bucket to give Boston a late lead after, igniting their 18-point comeback with his defensive effort. That effort served as the nail in the coffin for the Pacers that night.

Who could forget Jrue’s game-sealing steal against Andrew Nembhard?

Holiday carried that momentum over the NBA Finals, where his most memorable performance came in Boston’s Game 2 win over the Dallas Mavericks. The All-Defensive guard brought the scoring that night but in a unique way. Despite being a ballhandler for the majority of his career, Holiday got most of his points by moving without the basketball.

It was a game full of timely cuts and pretty finishes for him. He ended the night with 26 points on 11-of-14 from the field, once again showcasing his shapeshifting ability.

Holiday’s first season in green ended with plenty of gold (a Larry and an Olympic Gold Medal). As he enters year two, he tells “SLAM Magazine” that he’s once again ready to do whatever it takes to help the team.

“This season, I feel like the city of Boston is kind of like how we play. Hard nosed, blue collar, no excuses. Whatever they ask me to do, I’m going to do, and I feel like the city of Boston is like that,” Jrue told SLAM’s Jared Ebanks. “You should see these fans. I’m telling you, literally from the first preseason game to the last game of the season, they’ve been there supporting, they’ve been there cheering in a way that I’ve never seen before. It’s like one of the craziest experiences that I’ve been a part of. I feel like they appreciate that because [they] understand my game and how I play.”

Whether it’s with his playing ability or mindset, the man is nothing if not consistent.

Want more Jrue Holiday? Check out the below video where Jack Simone and I break down his best games of last season.