The Boston Celtics are playing successfully in the 2023/24 season. However, many fans were worried that the home team at TD Garden would not be able to keep the squad for next season, when Jrue Holiday could not activate the 1-year option and become a DO player.

That scenario did not happen when Jrue Holiday signed a new 4-year contract with the Boston Celtics. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the value of this contract is up to 135 million USD.

However, there are still assessments that the Boston Celtics are taking a risk by offering a contract that is too valuable for a 33-year-old player. In this article, The Sporting News will analyze whether this is a reasonable reason for the Boston Celtics.

Jrue Holiday’s value in the Boston Celtics squad

In the 2023/24 season, Jrue Holiday is experiencing a significant decline in statistics compared to the 2022/23 season when he was defending the Milwaukee Bucks. However, this is an inevitable consequence, as Jrue Holiday’s role at the Boston Celtics is to focus more on defense, instead of having to bear the added pressure of a third scoring option like in his old team.

Jrue Holiday has an average of 12.5 points per number, a significant decrease from 19.3 points when he was with the Milwaukee Bucks. However, the 33-year-old defender’s score conversion rate increased significantly. Refusing to make 38.4% 3-pointers last season, he improved his shooting to 43.1% in 2023/24.

At the Celtics, Jrue Holiday strengthens the offensive role of other players and focuses on hunting for space every time the home team plays the ball. As for the Bucks, Jrue Holiday also has the task of adding breakthrough and architectural tasks. With the reduced work load on the field, Holiday has become more efficient with each of his throws.

On the brink of that, Jrue Holiday will also have enough strength to fully soak his possession, which is defense. According to NBA statistics, accompanying Jrue Holiday players will have a 2.2% decrease in performance compared to usual parameters. When Jrue Holiday’s defensive distance was between 1.8m and 3m from the ball, he even established a method to reduce performance by 5.8%.

Is Jrue Holiday worth the high salary of the Boston Celtics?

The Boston Celtics’ extension move for Jrue Holiday must take into account many factors. Remember, Clover possesses an extremely quality squad to compete for the championship title. They own 5 players who can accumulate at any time: Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, not to mention the strategic reserve on the bench, Al Horford. With a limited Jrue break, the Boston Celtics will continue to maintain this situation until the end of the 2024/25 season.

Therefore, the Celtics’ top priority in the coming years will only be to select reserve players and necessary pieces to supplement their squad. To do that, they need the salary gap that has been so conspiratorial in recent years.

First, the value of Jrue Holiday’s $135 million contract will not be divided into an average over four years. In the next season, this player only received a figure of 30.1 million USD, much lower, so with Jrue Holiday activating the automatic extension of 37.3 million USD from the old agreement.

This will give the Boston Celtics an additional $7 million to work with in finding backups and increasing roster depth. Not to mention, if the Boston Celtics do not have a need to add players, this move will also help them reduce taxes by $35 million, which has increased very high in recent seasons.

Reducing payouts in the short term would help the Celtics a lot. They will avoid penalties from the NBA because of the increased fines. In addition to examining long-term plans, the Boston Celtics still have plenty of time to recalculate their team building plan after the 2024/25 season.