The Bucks shouldn’t be blamed for trading Jrue Holiday.
After leaving the Milwaukee Bucks (and, shortly, the Portland Trail Blazers), Jrue Holiday has become a dream addition to the Boston Celtics. He’s one of the main reasons Boston is two wins away from its first NBA title since 2008. Full stop.
The veteran point guard’s on-ball pressure is a terrific asset to a Boston team with arguably the NBA’s finest perimeter defense. He’s also settled in nicely as an ancillary fifth scoring option who can make open shots when they come to him. Holiday has enough responsibility to thrive at what he does best without overexerting himself.
In Boston’s selfless environment, where everyone is celebrated and empowered, he fits like a glove.
While it can be tempting to lambast the Bucks for giving up on Holiday, they were never going to be able to offer him the same set-up. They needed someone with a different skill set in their backcourt to become a title contender again, namely someone like Damian Lillard.
Both statements can be and are true. Hindsight isn’t always 20-20.
Aside from Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury, the biggest reason the first-seeded Bucks fell short during the 2023 playoffs was their lack of a true secondary scoring option. Khris Middleton’s injuries took their toll, and a defense-first Milwaukee couldn’t muster up enough consistently dynamic offense in a first-round upset against the Miami Heat.
The Bucks became predictable, a team without any real threatening punch, and they exited the playoffs accordingly.
Getting a running mate for Antetokounmpo — someone who could take much of the scoring burden off his hands — was a must. Someone like Lillard, a player who can shoot and score from anywhere while thriving as a focal point of the opposition’s game plan. The Bucks could figure out their point-of-attack defense later. They had no choice — they had to.
(Note: They didn’t this season, but it’s still less of a long-term concern with a feeble offense.)
As good as Holiday was, he was miscast in Milwaukee. Even en route to the Bucks’ 2021 title, he was a defense-first player often asked to score too much, a guard who needed less attention from the other team to be effective on the offensive end. That is fine. Those have always been his limitations, but they hurt a team like the Bucks, who needed more firepower lately.
It most shows in Holiday shooting 40 percent from the field (28 percent from the 3-point line) in his last series with the Bucks — over a full 10 and 12 percentage points less, respectively, than he is now with the Celtics during this postseason. That is more a statement on the Celtics’ impeccable roster construction than it is on the Bucks for (rightfully) offloading a valuable piece of their last championship team.
Lest I forget, there’s a critical distinction here: The Bucks did NOT trade Holiday to the Celtics.
They didn’t willingly give him to a top Eastern Conference rival. They traded him to the Trail Blazers for Lillard, a player whose skill set they desperately needed much more. The Celtics, as prudent as they are, swooped in later to acquire Holiday from rebuilding Portland. There’s nothing the Bucks could’ve done to prevent that the moment they shipped Holiday off.
The Celtics are tremendous beneficiaries of Holiday’s surprising availability this offseason. The Bucks needed a dramatic change: an All-Star-caliber guard who could carry their team.
Both statements are true, and the former isn’t an indictment of Milwaukee.
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