Grading Celtics Trading Jrue Holiday for Anfernee Simons

The Boston Celtics made their first trade of the offseason, sending out Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers for guard Anfernee Simons and two second-round picks.

The deal is one of many expected from the Celtics as they try to shed long-term salary and balance their cap sheet.

The new Collective Bargaining Agreement makes going past the salary cap much more painful to stomach, financially and in terms of team building.

There are two tiers beyond the salary cap: the first and second aprons.

The first apron provides minimal restrictions, but the second apron limits how salaries can be used to get trades done and what player exceptions can be used.

The Celtics are a second-apron team, meaning they are restricted in signing players and making trades.

Since Jayson Tatum is out for the upcoming season, the Celtics cannot afford to have such a massive cap sheet with all the penalties that come as a consequence of a team that cannot challenge for a title in the upcoming season.

That makes moving on from big-money contracts, especially from older veterans, key for the team during this offseason, which leads to trades like the Holiday deal.

Here are the grades for the trade, considering everything:

Celtics: A+

It is hard to imagine a better trade for Holiday. The Celtics get a young, cheaper guard who is on an expiring deal and move on from a guard past his prime who has several more years of committed money.

At 26 years old, Simons will make $27.6 million in the upcoming season and then become a free agent.

Holiday makes $32.4 million this upcoming season at 35 years old. His deal runs for another two seasons after for more than $34 million each season.

Holiday's deal runs until age 37. Given his injury history and declining play, he is not worth his salary relative to other contracts.

Many NBA experts predicted that the Celtics would need to attach a draft pick to get off the Holiday contract, but the Blazers were the team that added two second-round picks on top of a young player with a shorter deal.

The Celtics come away saving almost $5 million in salary, though Simons could end up getting traded to a third team for more salary relief.

President of basketball operations Brad Stevens pulled off a great trade for the Celtics, giving them an ideal return that should help the team's salary sheet.

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