I am way late to this thread, I have been traveling. Stunning trade. I love Jrue Holiday the player, definitely an upgrade on Brogdon. I really like Brogdon but I feel Holiday is better. I probably never fully appreciated Holiday the player until I got to see him play in MIL in the big games vs. the Celtics and otherwise. He is money. I also love Marcus Smart but Holiday brings a lot of what I loved in Marcus but has a much more advanced offensive game. Plus I can't wait to see Jrue Holiday play vs. MIL, he should bring some extra motivation.
As to the trade, it feels like an overpay (exactly what I was saying after the Derrick White trade). I get that Rob Williams has durability issues and it is hard to expect that this season would suddenly be different for him, but the team weakness is now the big rotation. Plus two firsts, that is a lot to give up. I suspect that this is going to mean we play with 1 big as the primary line up, like last season. But the 1-big line up in 2022-23 was not as good as the conventional 2-big line up in 2021-22. I feel the ideal line up is:
Holiday
Brown
Tatum
Porzingis
Defense and Rebounding Center
Horford can be that center but I thought that having him be the third big, playing both PF and C, was the ideal role for him. Either way, whether it is the bigger line up with Horford or the smaller line up with White, it is a really strong line up, the Celtics are solid 1-6. Then there is a massive drop off to Brissett, Pritchard, Hauser, Stevens, Mykhailiuk, Kornet, Walsh, (Wenyen Gabriel?). None of the 7-13/14 guys are even certain to be good enough to be in the playoff rotation.
The second line up based on my preferred bigger line up is:
Pritchard
White
Hauser
Brissett
Kornet
Pritchard, White, and Hauser (plus maybe Stevens in the mix) are all fine enough for regular season for the guard/wing slots. The problem is that Brisset is not really a PF (even though he is taller than Grant), but may be serviceable as a PF/Swing, and then we have Kornet who is better suited for 3rd unit.
Bottom line, love getting Jrue Holiday but the trade created a need. We need a solid bench or staring level PF/C type player to replace Rob Williams. There is still time to do that, it doesn't even need to be for the start of the season, but the sooner the better. New players need time to acclamate.