Compared to the heights he reached in the 2024 NBA Finals, it has been a down year for Jrue Holiday. The shooting has taken a dip, the defense has not been as ferocious, and we haven’t quite felt the classic Jrue Holiday impact. Well, that has flipped after the first two games back from the All-Star break.
Amidst the struggles from Holiday this season, I’ve found it difficult to decipher what the cause has been. It could be as simple as the shoulder impingement that has kept him out of 10-plus games. I have mostly rationalized it as a veteran, a two-time NBA champion, coming off a Finals and an Olympics, pacing his way through the regular season.
Jrue Holiday was a two-way wrecking ball through the entire 2024 playoff run. Father Time doesn’t come knocking that quickly and sharply for a guy who takes incredible care of his body and has a limited injury history.
Celtics fans concerns about Jrue were justified, though. When contrasted with the loved and trusted Al Horford, the difference is simply familiarity. Al Horford has been oscillating between looking washed in the regular season and being among the most impactful and versatile big men in the playoffs for four seasons. We know he will be cranking it up come playoff time.
Jrue is still relatively new here in Boston. Al Horford has earned our trust when it comes to flipping the switch. And after the most recent beat down of the Knicks, I now have a similar trust in Jrue Holiday.
Jrue Holiday was a monster against New York. Whether it was blowing up plays on the defensive end:
Bullying smaller players on offense:
Or hitting dagger threes:
This is the Jrue Holiday Celtics fans got addicted to in last year’s playoff run.
My theory on Holiday’s defensive slippage is that it’s partially due to the type of defender he is, and how that style doesn’t work while coasting through the regular season. Holiday has made a career by bringing an overwhelming physicality to the defensive side of the ball. This is a difficult style to play while nursing an injury and pacing yourself through 82 games.
While Holiday is a physical force with the ability to guard all the way up to players like Joel Embiid and Karl Anthony Towns, his strength is not his quickness. That’s not to say he can’t engulf smaller, quicker offensive players — he has done that countless times. It’s just that when he is doing said engulfing, he is initiating the fight. When Holiday is in coast mode, offensive players are able to bring that fight to him, exposing his lateral quickness limitationss, making him look like he has lost more of a step than he has.
And now that we have seen that Jrue Holiday’s Ferrari FXX Evo engine can still open up to 249 miles per hour, it’s time to throttle back down and follow the speed limit. Thankfully, Brad Stevens agrees with me. Jrue Holiday has already been listed as out due to “rest” against the Raptors tonight, which I’m guessing signals the end of Jrue playing in back-to-backs this regular season, as the Celtics play the frisky sixth-seeded Pistons the following night. This is the correct approach for the remaining regular season. Health is the number one priority. Eyes on the prize.
