Jrue Holiday Is A Winner, Marcus Smart Isn’t

By Steve Atkinson 

The best thing the Celtics did during the off-season was get rid of Marcus Smart. One of the other best things the Celtics did was trade for Jrue Holiday. They on paper are better than the Milwaukee Bucks who just landed Damian Lillard. The Celtics are loaded and in win-now mode.

Tatum and Brown have a short lesh at a championship window. Brown just got his supermax but he’s not going to be here for the rest of his career. I’ve said if he could’ve gotten a supermax on another team he would be gone already. Tatum will sign the Supermax too but won’t be here his entire career either.

Jrue Holiday Brings Championship Vibes to the Celtics

The Celtics now are set with Tatum, Brown, Holiday, White, Porzingis, and Hortford. One thing Holiday brings is he won’t get in the way like Smart did. Smart thought he was the same as Tatum and Brown. Holiday will stay in his place and be a better player. Holiday is a better shooter than Smart.

Brad Stevens pulled off the trade that Danny Angie would never do.

There’s a list of guys you never think you’d have the chance to trade for but would be a perfect fit. Jrue was one of those guys,” Stevens said. As time went on, I think we all became a little bit more wondering if Portland was going to end up getting somebody that they would then move on from as a result of moving Dame. So, we were monitoring it like the rest of the league,” Stevens said.

Joe Mazzulla also spoke of the Holiday addition

Just grateful,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said of the addition. “Grateful and open-minded. Anytime you can add character and mindset, it’s a win. We have that in our building. We’ve had that in our building. And now we’ve added that to our building. He doesn’t have to come in here and do anything but be who he is.”

With the addition of Holiday meant the loss of Rob Williams.

Really hard,” Stevens said of letting go of Williams. “I’ve said this to our staff today: Those phone calls… I’ll probably be somewhere else in 10 years hiding. Those are the hardest phone calls. It was such a pleasure to watch Rob grow. When he first got here, he had a long way to go, but he had a great attitude. He was a great teammate. And he got a lot better over time. I know Portland’s excited to get Williams.

Brogdon being gone is no loss because there were rumors he didn’t like how the Celtics handled his elbow injury. Also, they’ve been trying to trade him all off-season. The Celtics got much better this off-season and you can give credit to Brad Stevens for not listening to the fans about how good Marcus was and he brought championship vibes. Not even close. Jrue Holiday who has actually won a championship will provide those championship vibes on the Celtics.

Brown spoke about the Trade

He plays with a certain force you can just feel,” Brown added. “He’s just super solid. He’s a competitor. He’s an assassin.”