Shams: Celtics Trade Jrue Holiday to Portland for Anfernee Simons, Two Second-Round Picks

[JimmyPlopper]

Scoot Henderson / Jrue Holiday
Shaedon Sharpe / Rayan Rupert
Deni Avdija / Kris Murray
Jerami Grant / Toumani Camara
DeAndre Ayton / Donovan Clingan / Robert Williams

Anfernee Simons / Payton Pritchard / JD Davison
Derrick White / Baylor Scheierman
Jaylen Brown / Jordan Walsh
Al Horford / Sam Hauser / [Jayson Tatum]
Kristaps Porzingis / Luke Kornet / Neemias Queta

[JujitsuFlip]

Scoot Henerson / Jrue Holiday
Shaedon Sharpe / Rayan Rupert
Deni Avdija / Kris Murray
Jerami Grant / Toumani Camara
DeAndre Ayton / Donovan Clingan / Robert Williams

Anfernee Simons / Payton Pritchard / JD Davison
Derrick White / Baylor Scheierman
Jaylen Brown / Jordan Walsh
Al Horford / Sam Hauser / [Jayson Tatum]
Kristaps Porzingis / Luke Kornet / Neemias Queta

Horford may retire, KP needs traded to dodge the 2nd apron, Kornet is an UFA.

[DusterBuster]

Scoot Henerson / Jrue Holiday
Shaedon Sharpe / Rayan Rupert
Deni Avdija / Kris Murray
Jerami Grant / Toumani Camara
DeAndre Ayton / Donovan Clingan / Robert Williams

Anfernee Simons / Payton Pritchard / JD Davison
Derrick White / Baylor Scheierman
Jaylen Brown / Jordan Walsh
Al Horford / Sam Hauser / [Jayson Tatum]
Kristaps Porzingis / Luke Kornet / Neemias Queta

You have Portland's depth chart wrong. They won't have Camara coming off the bench. He's a locked in starter. Sharpe would be off the bench before Camara.

[itrsteve]

His defense was still as good as ever, and he just wasn’t used offensively as anything more than a spot up shooter. Considering he’s widely considered one of the best locker room guys and vets in the league, I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as some seem to.

As a Celtics fan, this is the big win for Portland. I forget how many of the yearbook superlatives he won for best teammate, but it was more than one and on more than one team. This is a big get for a younger team who hasn't done a whole lot of winning, now you bring somebody in who's a proven net positive in the locker room and has played a critical role in two championships. We have no insight to what the locker room dynamic is within PDX and it could easily be the case where Simons and another critical player did not play well with somebody else and they didn't want to screw around with a contract year.

Guys like him do not grow on trees and can pay massive dividends. I do not see this as a WTF moment for the PDX front office.

[Pattycakes]

His defense was still as good as ever, and he just wasn’t used offensively as anything more than a spot up shooter. Considering he’s widely considered one of the best locker room guys and vets in the league, I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as some seem to.

As a Celtics fan, this is the big win for Portland. I forget how many of the yearbook superlatives he won for best teammate, but it was more than one and on more than one team. This is a big get for a younger team who hasn't done a whole lot of winning, now you bring somebody in who's a proven net positive in the locker room and has played a critical role in two championships. We have no insight to what the locker room dynamic is within PHX and it could easily be the case where Simons and another critical player did not play well with somebody else and they didn't want to screw around with a contract year.

Guys like him do not grow on trees and can pay massive dividends. I do not see this as a WTF moment for the PHX front office.

PDX is Portland bro, but I agree with everything

[JimmyPlopper]

Holiday seems like he could make the transition to coach or GM pretty easily after his career

[phanman]

I like the move for both sides.

Celtics helps clean up some of their 2nd apron mess and get a free look at a high scoring guard in Simons to help fill the scoring void left by Tatum's injury. The brilliance of Brad is on full display getting the Blazers to include the 2 SRPs but it's I doubt Portland's front office is losing any sleep over it.

The Blazers have a pretty clean cap sheet after next season with only Grant, Scoot, Clingan, Murray, Camara and now Jrue on the books. With the the cap floor, its not nearly as damaging as people think. As many franchises are realizing at some point you need to bring in quality vets to establish the culture & Ayton/Grant clearly aren't cutting it.

[TheWitcher]

The Blazers FO is about the dumbest in the league. Like seriously, make it make sense.

Celtics fleece another team

[JimmyFromNz]

Read on Twitter

Pound for pound I'd agree Jrue is a better player than Simons, and there are some mentorship traits that would benefit the younger Portland guys.

However, in an attempt to 'zag' KOC makes some big generalisations there:

• Resurrection: What evidence is there of any potential bounce back at 35 and in year 17? Recovery from injuries - well until the next one.

• Flipping : The ability to 'flip' a $130 million contract at the deadline is severely limited. What contender would be willing and able to take on that # for a guy who would feasibly be the 4th best player on their team? You know who I think would be a great deadline target for a contender? A knock down perimeter shooter and secondary ball handler on a cheaper expiring contract e.g. Simons.

• Salary: Portland already had Simons, Ayton and Grant coming off the books within the next 1-2 years. The idea of needing salary to trade seems redundant, at best this is just extending liability an extra year.

• The biggest assumption is that Jrue is happy with this situation. Steve Bulpett has already indicated this may not be the case.

• I've read separate comparisons to the value of Houston buying in vets. FVV and Brooks were both in their late 20s when signed, I really don't see any meaningful comparison. Culture setters in your mid-late 30s look like cheap attainable guards like Conley, Lowry or even reconsidering Brogdon who was shipped today. All coming at 20% of the price commitment. The outcome is that Portland are paying $99+ million this season to Ayton/Grant/Jrue alone.

I have a soft spot for Portland and genuinely hope it works out for them and Jrue, though many of the justifications remain unconvincing to me.

[Jagic Mohnson]

If I'm the Knicks, I trade Bridges for Jrue . Bridges looks lost in NYC, he doesn't look confident like he did in Phoenix. Jrue, Brunson, Hart, OG, Kat starting 5 is nice.

[itrsteve]

PDX is Portland bro, but I agree with everything

Shoot, long day

[Pattycakes]

The Blazers FO is about the dumbest in the league. Like seriously, make it make sense.

Celtics fleece another team

Simons is trash bro no one fleeced anyone. Congrats you got a chucker, we at least got a valuable vet

Celtics dumping two starters isn’t fleecing anyone. It’s just tough circumstances

[DusterBuster]

The Blazers FO is about the dumbest in the league. Like seriously, make it make sense.

Celtics fleece another team

Simons is trash bro no one fleeced anyone. Congrats you got a chucker, we at least got a valuable vet

Celtics dumping two starters isn’t fleecing anyone. It’s just tough circumstances

Both of these comments are overboard.

No one got fleeced is the right answer. First off, not enough assets even moved for a team to be "fleeced" by my definition. Secondly, Simons is absolutely not "trash", he's just inconsistent and a tad injury prone.

[Jordan45822]

Supposedley Jrue is pissed off that he got traded to Portland and that he doesn't want to go there.

Read on Twitter

[cpower]

Read on Twitter

they are top 5 D and bottom 5 O...now you bring in more D....are you going to completely give up the offense?

[TheWitcher]

The Blazers FO is about the dumbest in the league. Like seriously, make it make sense.

Celtics fleece another team

Simons is trash bro no one fleeced anyone. Congrats you got a chucker, we at least got a valuable vet

Celtics dumping two starters isn’t fleecing anyone. It’s just tough circumstances

Both of these comments are overboard.

No one got fleeced is the right answer. First off, not enough assets even moved for a team to be "fleeced" by my definition. Secondly, Simons is absolutely not "trash", he's just inconsistent and a tad injury prone.

Helped a team save millions by taking on a bloated contract, and gave away a young, serviceable player. The Celtics are a great defensive team that can afford to have a player like Simons. The Blazers laid an egg during the Lillard trade, and now they follow it up with this atrocious trade.

The Blazers are on par with the Phoenix Suns FO. Just awful

[TheWitcher]

The Blazers helped the Celtics get Jrue Holiday, Celtics got a chip, then helped them move him again while getting back their best offensive player.

[lethalizer]

Anfernee Simons is one of the worst defensive players I have watched over the past few seasons.

Portland tried their best to hide him on D after they let go of Lillard, so his defensive metrics improved a bit, but obviously he was still their worst player on that side of the floor.

Sure he can score in a flurry, but I can guarantee you Celtics fans will turn on him quickly if he doesn't magically become an okay defender over the summer.

His reaction timing on D is slow as hell, his lateral feet quickness is just not there, gets lost on the screens fairly quickly.

Better have an elite rim protecter he can funnel to, or just try to hide him on a non shooter if possible. He gets eaten alive on quick actions.

[Infinite Llamas]

Anfernee Simons is one of the worst defensive players I have watched over the past few seasons.

Portland tried their best to hide him on D after they let go of Lillard, so his defensive metrics improved a bit, but obviously he was still their worst player on that side of the floor.

Sure he can score in a flurry, but I can guarantee you Celtics fans will turn on him quickly if he doesn't magically become an okay defender over the summer.

His reaction timing on D is slow as hell, his lateral feet quickness is just not there, gets lost on the screens fairly quickly.

Better have an elite rim protecter he can funnel to, or just try to hide him on a non shooter if possible. He gets eaten alive on quick actions.

I mean, Boston found a way to utilize Isaiah Thomas who was a weak, undersized defender and they found some success there. White and Brown are arguably better defenders than Avery Bradley and Crowder so it isn’t out of the realm that he could be hidden somewhat. Of course, Simons isn’t half the playmaker that Isaiah was but he’s still a fairly dynamic scorer…

Jrue is a great defender but Brunson was having his way against him in the semis. Sometimes, great offense just beats great defense.

[ShootersShoot]

I never said I am a huge fan of Jrue but sorry man, 17pts, 5apg to 3 turnovers is not an Allstar PG in my book.

Garland is young and doesnt have a ton of playoff experience. Using such a small sample size to rate a player is disingenious, especially when he literally was an all star this season.

You know who else went to the allStar games? D Angelo Russell.
And if you call 3 playoff runs with 769 minutes total played as small sample size, then let's agree to disagree.

It still doesnt make sense trading a 35 yr old declining player for a 25 yr old all star on an elite team. Absolutely zero justification there. Forget the all star selections, when has deangelo been on an elite team? He played with bron and AD and they were an 8th seeded team. Its clear as day garland is a more impactful player