Wiz/Charlotte/Boston: An Unlikely Jrue Destination as he heads to the Hornets

[mhd]

Wiz trade: Smart (expiring) for Nurkic (expiring)+Ogokie (expiring)+2031 2nd round pick
Boston trades: Jrue+2026 1st (top 6 protected)+2031 2nd for Smart (expiring)
Hornets trade: Nurkic (expiring)+Ogokie (expiring) for Jrue+2026 Boston 1st (top 6 protected)


Why for the Wizards?
1). They don't really have a beefy center to help Sarr. Nurkic is expiring anyways and is a simple rental for the year to help bang against the big centers to avoid wear & tear on Sarr. They get a future 2nd for taking on the roughly 5.5 million in extra salary.

Why for the Celtics?
1). They shave roughly 10.8 million in immediate salary (the difference between Jrue & Smart) while bring back a familiar face who can play the Jrue role in the expiring Smart.

Why for the Hornets?
1). They are not in any immediate payroll danger and get a vet contributor in Jrue who is a good fit next to Ball. Plus, they get a potentially valuable 2026 Boston first that is top 6 protected in exchange for taking on Jrue's last two years.

[JustBuzzin]

What is Charlotte accomplishing with a 35yr old Jrue Holiday?

He's not making us a playoff team. He's also showing signs of decline. 5 years ago this would had made a lot of sense for Charlotte.

If we going for aging vets just sign CP3.

[brackdan70]

I don’t see the point for Hornets and also Boston won’t be giving up assets to trade Jrue IMO.

[HornetJail]

love it. get it done. Jrue doesn't need to make us a contender overnight, but he'd help a lot even a slightly washed version

[brackdan70]

love it. get it done. Jrue doesn't need to make us a contender overnight, but he'd help a lot even a slightly washed version

Would you do it without the pick?
I don’t see the Celtics attaching a pick.

[mhd]

love it. get it done. Jrue doesn't need to make us a contender overnight, but he'd help a lot even a slightly washed version

Would you do it without the pick?
I don’t see the Celtics attaching a pick.

Huh, no way is Jrue getting traded without sacrificing future draft capital. That contract is a killer. This deal gets them a capable Jrue replacement Boston knows well in Smart while immediately shaving almost 11 million in salary (and getting out of Jrue's last two years) There isn't another deal like this that I can find that keeps Boston competitive while shaving salary.

All the contenders have tax/apron issues themselves. Who is trading for that contract without sending back equally bad contracts with length?

[hugepatsfan]

Doesn't make sense for BOS. If they sign their #28 and #32 draft picks next year to normal multi year deals then, if you remove Jrue entirely from their 26-27 cap sheet, they will be $29.9M under the luxury tax and that's including Hauser who would still have to be dumped into a TPE after this deal to solve their apron issues this year. So in reality they're close to $40M below the tax next year if you clear Jrue. The same kind of thing for the third year of Jrue's deal in 27-28.

BOS is saving some money this year but the price they're paying here is obviously for the 26-27 and 27-28 savings that are completely and totally unnecessary for them. Their 2026 pick is pretty decently valuable with Tatum out and them dumping really good players like Jrue Holiday so it doesn't make sense for them to use that to primarily clear money in years they don't need to clear money.

Instead of a team like WAS with an expiring Smart, bring in teams with multi year salary that they would attach assets to in exchange for CHA's expiring pupu platter and give that to CHA instead. BOS would rather pay no value to just break Jrue down into a couple of more workable salaries but still multi year than pay their best asset to dump money they don't need to dump.

[mhd]

Doesn't make sense for BOS. If they sign their #28 and #32 draft picks next year to normal multi year deals then, if you remove Jrue entirely from their 26-27 cap sheet, they will be $29.9M under the luxury tax and that's including Hauser who would still have to be dumped into a TPE after this deal to solve their apron issues this year. So in reality they're close to $40M below the tax next year if you clear Jrue. The same kind of thing for the third year of Jrue's deal in 27-28.

BOS is saving some money this year but the price they're paying here is obviously for the 26-27 and 27-28 savings that are completely and totally unnecessary for them. Their 2026 pick is pretty decently valuable with Tatum out and them dumping really good players like Jrue Holiday so it doesn't make sense for them to use that to primarily clear money in years they don't need to clear money.

Instead of a team like WAS with an expiring Smart, bring in teams with multi year salary that they would attach assets to in exchange for CHA's expiring pupu platter and give that to CHA instead. BOS would rather pay no value to just break Jrue down into a couple of more workable salaries but still multi year than pay their best asset to dump money they don't need to dump.

Like Grant Williams and Josh Green LOL. I don't see Charlotte sacrificing any picks to consolidate Grant Williams & Green for Jrue. Their new FO has shown they are only trading for future draft picks. They only do this deal because they are getting a potentially valuable 2026 Boston 1st (in exchange for taking on Jrue's last two years). It's easier to move two smaller bad contracts vs one big bad contract in Jrue. Boston would not break Jrue's contract into Grant Williams and Josh Green either as those guys are just salary ballast at this stage of their careers.

IMO, Boston is going to have to trade at least one future 1st to shed Jrue's salary. Otherwise, they'll trade him for poo poo like Grant Williams+Josh Green.

[nate33]

I think the Wizards can do better with Marcus Smart's contract than one late SRP and eating $5.5M in salary. The premise is fine, but the return isn't.

[hugepatsfan]

Doesn't make sense for BOS. If they sign their #28 and #32 draft picks next year to normal multi year deals then, if you remove Jrue entirely from their 26-27 cap sheet, they will be $29.9M under the luxury tax and that's including Hauser who would still have to be dumped into a TPE after this deal to solve their apron issues this year. So in reality they're close to $40M below the tax next year if you clear Jrue. The same kind of thing for the third year of Jrue's deal in 27-28.

BOS is saving some money this year but the price they're paying here is obviously for the 26-27 and 27-28 savings that are completely and totally unnecessary for them. Their 2026 pick is pretty decently valuable with Tatum out and them dumping really good players like Jrue Holiday so it doesn't make sense for them to use that to primarily clear money in years they don't need to clear money.

Instead of a team like WAS with an expiring Smart, bring in teams with multi year salary that they would attach assets to in exchange for CHA's expiring pupu platter and give that to CHA instead. BOS would rather pay no value to just break Jrue down into a couple of more workable salaries but still multi year than pay their best asset to dump money they don't need to dump.

Like Grant Williams and Josh Green LOL. I don't see Charlotte sacrificing any picks to consolidate Grant Williams & Green for Jrue. Their new FO has shown they are only trading for future draft picks. They only do this deal because they are getting a potentially valuable 2026 Boston 1st (in exchange for taking on Jrue's last two years). It's easier to move two smaller bad contracts vs one big bad contract in Jrue. Boston would not break Jrue's contract into Grant Williams and Josh Green either as those guys are just salary ballast at this stage of their careers.

IMO, Boston is going to have to trade at least one future 1st to shed Jrue's salary. Otherwise, they'll trade him for poo poo like Grant Williams+Josh Green.

Yes, they'd rather trade him for that pupu platter and not have to pay. A million times yes. That makes so much more for them. And then they can do follow up deals with Grant Williams and Josh Green that are a million times easier to execute and shed incremental dollars in.

[hugepatsfan]

Also, the OP completely ignores that BOS is taking back Okogie which eats away at about 75% of the salary savings this is supposedly offering BOS.

EDIT, I read it wrong he's going to WAS. But as the WAS fan posted, they aren't getting enough to take on extra salary for worse players.

[brackdan70]

love it. get it done. Jrue doesn't need to make us a contender overnight, but he'd help a lot even a slightly washed version

Would you do it without the pick?
I don’t see the Celtics attaching a pick.

Huh, no way is Jrue getting traded without sacrificing future draft capital. That contract is a killer. This deal gets them a capable Jrue replacement Boston knows well in Smart while immediately shaving almost 11 million in salary (and getting out of Jrue's last two years) There isn't another deal like this that I can find that keeps Boston competitive while shaving salary.

All the contenders have tax/apron issues themselves. Who is trading for that contract without sending back equally bad contracts with length?

the Celtics don’t need to shave all of Jrues Salary. They need to shed about 15 m in total Salary for the 26/27 season and what ever they can next year. They won’t attach assets to do so imo.
There are at least 4 teams with expressed interest in Holiday. I think he is valued around the league much more highly than around RealGM.
The Celtics will want salary relief, and a useful player they can keep long term. I would make a gentlemen’s bet that if he is traded they don’t have to attach assets to do so unless they upgrade talent.

[Texas Chuck]

My usual reminder that sometimes teams are interested in a player because of the price tag. We see posters with a player who makes not much money that lots of teams can trade for and express some level of interest in and they use that to say our player is worth multiple firsts and then DFS goes for 2nd rounders. His market was wide because of his salary but it wasn't deep because he's not that kind of player.

Look at the teams with rumored Jrue interest -- Dallas is desperate and has no assets so they say well we can help offer some salary relief and a useful player or two with all the cheap salaries they have. Doesn't mean Jrue is valuable though right. Its Dallas needs a guy that doesn't cost assets and ideally might even bring one back.

Maybe Jrue does go and give you all the savings you want for free. But I wouldn't state that as a given just because of rumor mill stuff.

[nate33]

A construct that could work would be something like:

Boston trades Jrue to Washington.

Washington sends Marcus Smart back to Boston, and either Kispert or Saddiq Bey into a 3rd team's MLE. Kispert/Bey are neutral value assets at their contract so it shouldn't cost anything to move them, the Wizards might even get a SRP in the process. Boston would pay Washington a FRP for turning Jrue's 3-year $97M contract into Marcus Smart's 1-year $21.5M contract.

Washington then has Jrue and tries to flip him to a team that needs him in exchange for worse players with shorter contracts (and without the need to save any money immediately, so deals will be easier to find).

[ReggiesKnicks]

What is Charlotte accomplishing with a 35yr old Jrue Holiday?

He's not making us a playoff team. He's also showing signs of decline. 5 years ago this would had made a lot of sense for Charlotte.

If we going for aging vets just sign CP3.

5 years ago Jrue was worth multiple 1sts though

[HornetJail]

love it. get it done. Jrue doesn't need to make us a contender overnight, but he'd help a lot even a slightly washed version

Would you do it without the pick?
I don’t see the Celtics attaching a pick.

I'd try to leverage something out of it, maybe not the lightly protected 1st, but something