The Boston Celtics' main priority this offseason will be to get under the NBA's second tax apron. They have multiple large contracts that could be moved to accomplish this goal.
One of those contracts is Jrue Holiday's, who is about to finish the first year of a four-year, $134.4 million contract extension he signed with the Celtics last year. If the Celtics got out of his deal, it would help them significantly reduce their payroll.
Holiday has quite the resume and is considered one of the best two-way guards in the NBA. However, he will be 35 in June, so teams may be turned off by acquiring an aging player who will only get paid more with each passing year of his deal.
In his latest for The People's Insider, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line revealed that even with Holiday's reputation as a two-time champion, the Celtics might have to include other assets to trade away his deal.
"Multiple rival executives have passed along that, for all of Holiday's unquestioned championship know-how after contributing to title teams in Milwaukee and Boston, some form of incentive (such as draft compensation) might have to be attached to Holiday's contract by the Celtics to convince someone to absorb the $104 million remaining on the 34-year-old's deal over the next three seasons," he wrote.
Having to attach assets to deal a player like Holiday would be unfortunate for Boston, especially when considering he is still a productive player.
Next season, Holiday will be paid $32.4 million. The year after that, he'll be paid $34.8 million. In the last year of his contract, he'll be paid $37.2 million. He has a player option for his last season, but because he'll be 37, the odds are highly likely that Holiday will opt in.
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