Boston Celtics reportedly trade Jrue Holiday to Portland Trailblazers

CBS News

4 days ago

The Boston Celtics have reportedly traded Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trailblazers, according to ESPN. In return, the Celtics are receiving Anfernee Simons and two second-round draft picks.
Holiday, who just turned 35 on June 12, spent the last two seasons in Boston and helped the Celtics win the 2024 NBA Championship. But with the Celtics up against the second apron and Holiday signed for three more seasons at $104.4 million, Brad Stevens made the difficult choice to trade away an incredible veteran contributor and a great presence in the locker room.
Next season will be Holiday's 17th in the NBA, and he's carved out an incredible career since coming into the league as a first-round pick in 2009. Holiday is a two-time NBA champ, having won a title with the Bucks in 2021 in addition to his championship with Boston, and a two-time All-Star. He's made six All-Defensive teams over his career, including four times since hitting the age of 30. He's also won the NBA's Sportsmanship Award twice, including last season with Boston.
Holiday doesn't just bring a presence to the court, though. He's an incredible teammate and has been named the NBA's Teammate of the Year three times. He was an integral part of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Celtics getting over the hump in 2024, and will be missed in Boston.
But with Tatum expected to miss the 2025-26 season as he recovers from an Achilles injury, the Celtics are resetting the books a bit to escape the huge second-apron tax bill and future restrictions.
The 26-year-old Simons is set to play the 2025-26 season on an expiring 27.6 million dollar contract. Simons was a 2018 1st round pick of the Blazers. Over his 7 NBA seasons, he's averaged 15 points, 3 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game.
Jrue Holiday with the Boston Celtics
The Celtics acquired Holiday on October 1, 2023, just a few days after he was traded from the Bucks to the Portland Trail Blazers in a three-team trade that landed Damian Lillard in Milwaukee. Stevens jumped at the chance to acquire a player and leader like Holiday, and sent Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, and a pair of future first-round draft picks to Portland to bring the veteran guard to Boston.
The move -- along with Boston's acquisition of Kristaps Porzingis earlier in the offseason -- paid off throughout the regular season and culminated in the Celtics' 18th title in franchise history.
Holiday averaged just 12.5 points per game in his first season in green, but he shot an incredibly efficient 48 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from three-point range during the regular season. He shot 50 percent overall and 40 percent from three in the playoffs while averaging 13.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game, and played his usual stingy defense throughout Boston's title run.
In addition to his second NBA title, Holiday also won a second gold medal with Team USA in the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024. His numbers dipped a bit in 2025, when Holiday averaged 11.1 points off 44 percent shooting. He also dealt with a finger injury late in the season, which limited him to 62 games.
Holiday averaged 9.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in the 2025 NBA playoffs. The Celtics' title defense ended with a six-game loss to the New York Knicks in the second round.
For his career, Holiday has averaged 15.8 points, 6.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 4.2 rebounds per game for the Philadelphia 76ers, New Orleans Pelicans, Bucks, and Celtics.