Open Wide

Boston finally made a different choice regarding its title window

Just a few days after acquiring him in the Damian Lillard trade, the Portland Trail Blazers found themselves a spin-off deal for Jrue Holiday. Woj broke the news on Sunday morning that they’d be [puts on shades] shipping him up to Boston:

• Celtics receive: Jrue Holiday

• Blazers receive: Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams III, 2024 Warriors 1st (top-4 protected), 2029 Celtics 1st (unprotected)

As we did with the first trade, let’s run through a few thoughts about this one from the perspective of each team…

Boston Celtics

Since pairing Jayson Tatum with Jaylen Brown in the 2017 NBA Draft, the Celtics have been one of the league's most consistently excellent teams. Only the Bucks (315) and 76ers (300) have won more games than Boston (296), which has been to the Eastern Conference Finals four times in six years and won the conference outright two years ago.

And yet, it’s clear that the Celtics felt they needed to dramatically reimagine their team. Already this offseason, they had traded Marcus Smart — who was basically the avatar for the Boston teams of recent vintage — for Kristaps Porzingis, and allowed Grant Williams to leave in free agency. Now, they’ve sent out Brogdon (last offseason’s big addition) and Robert Williams to bring back a player who gives them a replacement for Smart’s high-level multi-position defense.