Woj: Jrue to Celtics

[Roy H.]

What a difference a couple of weeks makes. He was put out to pasture a bit here not so long ago - an aging has-been who never performs in the playoffs.  So glad to see Jrue shut the door on that.

Slight correction - he's never raised his game in the playoffs vs. his performance during the regular season. And he still hasn't, but I think we'll all take 'perfectly adequate' games like that all the way to Banner 18

Two quibbles:  "Never" probably isn't accurate, and realistically how many guys do raise their game (particularly rate stats and efficiency) in the playoffs?

Specific to Jrue, my guess is that any perceived playoff struggles over the last few years have been a combination of better playoff defenses, reduced usage in the playoffs, changing roles (i.e., with Giannis out becoming a #1/#2 option), and expending a very large amount of energy on the defensive end.

[SparzWizard]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Marcus Smart would've bricked us out of that game. He lost his defensive tenacity after winning DPOY that one year. It was the right move to move him

[tazzmaniac]

What a difference a couple of weeks makes. He was put out to pasture a bit here not so long ago - an aging has-been who never performs in the playoffs.  So glad to see Jrue shut the door on that.

Slight correction - he's never raised his game in the playoffs vs. his performance during the regular season. And he still hasn't, but I think we'll all take 'perfectly adequate' games like that all the way to Banner 18

Two quibbles:  "Never" probably isn't accurate, and realistically how many guys do raise their game (particularly rate stats and efficiency) in the playoffs?

Specific to Jrue, my guess is that any perceived playoff struggles over the last few years have been a combination of better playoff defenses, reduced usage in the playoffs, changing roles (i.e., with Giannis out becoming a #1/#2 option), and expending a very large amount of energy on the defensive end.

Definitely no true.  Have people forgotten Jrue dominating Lillard in the 2017/18 playoffs to get New Orleans their only playoff series victory during the AD era?  Jrue also played pretty well against GSW in the 2nd round.  That was the year Rondo played for them and a lot of folks on the forum thought Rondo/Jrue combo wouldn't work out but were proven wrong. 

[tazzmaniac]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Marcus Smart would've bricked us out of that game. He lost his defensive tenacity after winning DPOY that one year. It was the right move to move him

Not only was Jrue a great addition for us but it also probably kept him from going to the Sixers where he'd have been a great addition for them.   

[jambr380]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Marcus Smart would've bricked us out of that game. He lost his defensive tenacity after winning DPOY that one year. It was the right move to move him

I don't know why people always feel the need to disparage another player in order to build up another one. Yes, Jrue has been great for us lately, and that is what we hoped for/expected when we traded for him. We were lucky to acquire him after the difficult decision to trade Smart.

At the same time, Smart was enormous for our franchise, had the ability to come up with the most clutch plays, and left it all on the floor for our franchise. Switching out Jrue for Smart isn't why our team is 'so much better' this year, it's because we added a unicorn at the Center position.

And we are going to need KP if we are going to go all the way this year. We've had a cakewalk of a playoff run this year. We've earned it because of our record, but we haven't faced anything like the 2022 Bucks or 2023 Sixers yet - excellent teams we were able to overcome.

[Roy H.]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Marcus Smart would've bricked us out of that game. He lost his defensive tenacity after winning DPOY that one year. It was the right move to move him

I don't know why people always feel the need to disparage another player in order to build up another one. Yes, Jrue has been great for us lately, and that is what we hoped for/expected when we traded for him. We were lucky to acquire him after the difficult decision to trade Smart.

At the same time, Smart was enormous for our franchise, had the ability to come up with the most clutch plays, and left it all on the floor for our franchise. Switching out Jrue for Smart isn't why our team is 'so much better' this year, it's because we added a unicorn at the Center position.

And we are going to need KP if we are going to go all the way this year. We've had a cakewalk of a playoff run this year. We've earned it because of our record, but we haven't faced anything like the 2022 Bucks or 2023 Sixers yet - excellent teams we were able to overcome.

I think Marcus was part of the problem.  He had big moments, but he also made plenty of stupid or lazy plays.  His effort was really off and on the last few seasons.

[mobilija]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Marcus Smart would've bricked us out of that game. He lost his defensive tenacity after winning DPOY that one year. It was the right move to move him

I don't know why people always feel the need to disparage another player in order to build up another one. Yes, Jrue has been great for us lately, and that is what we hoped for/expected when we traded for him. We were lucky to acquire him after the difficult decision to trade Smart.

At the same time, Smart was enormous for our franchise, had the ability to come up with the most clutch plays, and left it all on the floor for our franchise. Switching out Jrue for Smart isn't why our team is 'so much better' this year, it's because we added a unicorn at the Center position.

And we are going to need KP if we are going to go all the way this year. We've had a cakewalk of a playoff run this year. We've earned it because of our record, but we haven't faced anything like the 2022 Bucks or 2023 Sixers yet - excellent teams we were able to overcome.

I think Marcus was part of the problem.  He had big moments, but he also made plenty of stupid or lazy plays.  His effort was really off and on the last few seasons.

Marcus was part of the problem in 2023, but he was part of the solution in 2022. He had his best year by a mile. But it didn’t look like a sustainable peak. Agree that it was a good move away from him.

Jrue has always been a better player than Smart. I don’t think it’s a dis on Smart, as they essential swapped roles/positions. He was awesome and fun and a rolercoaster while in Boston.

[jambr380]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Marcus Smart would've bricked us out of that game. He lost his defensive tenacity after winning DPOY that one year. It was the right move to move him

I don't know why people always feel the need to disparage another player in order to build up another one. Yes, Jrue has been great for us lately, and that is what we hoped for/expected when we traded for him. We were lucky to acquire him after the difficult decision to trade Smart.

At the same time, Smart was enormous for our franchise, had the ability to come up with the most clutch plays, and left it all on the floor for our franchise. Switching out Jrue for Smart isn't why our team is 'so much better' this year, it's because we added a unicorn at the Center position.

And we are going to need KP if we are going to go all the way this year. We've had a cakewalk of a playoff run this year. We've earned it because of our record, but we haven't faced anything like the 2022 Bucks or 2023 Sixers yet - excellent teams we were able to overcome.

I think Marcus was part of the problem.  He had big moments, but he also made plenty of stupid or lazy plays.  His effort was really off and on the last few seasons.

Two seasons ago, he won DPOY; and last season, he had a fantastic playoff run both offensively and defensively. Calling him lazy just seems disingenuous. I believe Brad when he said it was difficult to trade Smart and that it was never his intention at all.

I get that people hated Smart, but we just watched Jrue stink up the joint for the Miami series and the first two games of the CLE series. He's been great these last 4 games - and I genuinely hope he continues to be great - but it's not like he's been our lord and savior. He's been very good, just like Smart has been very good. Why can't people just leave it at that?

[tonydelk]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Marcus Smart would've bricked us out of that game. He lost his defensive tenacity after winning DPOY that one year. It was the right move to move him

I don't know why people always feel the need to disparage another player in order to build up another one. Yes, Jrue has been great for us lately, and that is what we hoped for/expected when we traded for him. We were lucky to acquire him after the difficult decision to trade Smart.

At the same time, Smart was enormous for our franchise, had the ability to come up with the most clutch plays, and left it all on the floor for our franchise. Switching out Jrue for Smart isn't why our team is 'so much better' this year, it's because we added a unicorn at the Center position.

And we are going to need KP if we are going to go all the way this year. We've had a cakewalk of a playoff run this year. We've earned it because of our record, but we haven't faced anything like the 2022 Bucks or 2023 Sixers yet - excellent teams we were able to overcome.

I think Marcus was part of the problem.  He had big moments, but he also made plenty of stupid or lazy plays.  His effort was really off and on the last few seasons.

Two seasons ago, he won DPOY; and last season, he had a fantastic playoff run both offensively and defensively. Calling him lazy just seems disingenuous. I believe Brad when he said it was difficult to trade Smart and that it was never his intention at all.

I get that people hated Smart, but we just watched Jrue stink up the joint for the Miami series and the first two games of the CLE series. He's been great these last 4 games - and I genuinely hope he continues to be great - but it's not like he's been our lord and savior. He's been very good, just like Smart has been very good. Why can't people just leave it at that?

Every player makes stupid plays.  Most turnovers are. 

As for Smart.  I love Marcus.  All time Celtic.  But I don't think he could play like Jrue.  Jrue is an elevated Marcus.  I don't think we win yesterday's game with Marcus over Jrue.  Either way I still miss Smart but would rather the team win.

[green_bballers13]

Jrue is a better basketball player than Marcus, but Marcus was the heart and soul of this team for years. I don’t think he was lazy, but he did make mistakes and thought that he was a star. I think he wanted to be more than Tony Allen (and he was), and that led to questionable and noticeable mistakes. I thought Marcus was great for us and I hope Jrue can be just as good in green, but in a different way.

[ozgod]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Composure is the word to mind when I think of Jrue. He just has so much composure in whatever he does. He never gets panicked or reckless. Just does what’s needed.

 Smartacus was different - he was a heart attack player, you either got a heart attack because he tried something amazing and it worked or you got one because he tried something amazing and it didn’t, but you were always on the edge of your seat either way 

[Kernewek]

What a difference a couple of weeks makes. He was put out to pasture a bit here not so long ago - an aging has-been who never performs in the playoffs.  So glad to see Jrue shut the door on that.

Slight correction - he's never raised his game in the playoffs vs. his performance during the regular season. And he still hasn't, but I think we'll all take 'perfectly adequate' games like that all the way to Banner 18

Two quibbles:  "Never" probably isn't accurate, and realistically how many guys do raise their game (particularly rate stats and efficiency) in the playoffs?

Specific to Jrue, my guess is that any perceived playoff struggles over the last few years have been a combination of better playoff defenses, reduced usage in the playoffs, changing roles (i.e., with Giannis out becoming a #1/#2 option), and expending a very large amount of energy on the defensive end.

Never is broadly accurate. I think a few of us have been following him since his days with the AIx2 Sixers - he’s always had mixed bag playoff runs. Even when they upset the Bulls on the way to kickstarting The Process (his playoff peak before going to Milwaukee) he was always he had a couple of absolutely quiet games up his sleeve. His VORP, for instance, was absolutely in the gutter until two games ago. You can say that would have been  too low to trust,and you’d probably have been right, but the drop off from the regular season isn't perceived as much as it was an observable phenomenon see year on year.

Which, to reiterate, it’s not a slight: I’m a Holiday fan. Throughout the year I've said he’s a solid player who’s been great for us
. And if this is the year he proves me (and his record) wrong this year with his play on the way to a ring, I’m happy to be on the wrong side of history.

[Roy H.]

Holiday wasn't just a beast last night but he was unselfish and a calm presence throughout

As much as I loved Smart, he just was not that guy at all in 2023 and it felt after 2019 he developed a bit of an ego and acted like he was a member of the "Big 3". Jrue meanwhile seems content playing any sort of role that contributes to winning, no fuss.

Marcus Smart would've bricked us out of that game. He lost his defensive tenacity after winning DPOY that one year. It was the right move to move him

I don't know why people always feel the need to disparage another player in order to build up another one. Yes, Jrue has been great for us lately, and that is what we hoped for/expected when we traded for him. We were lucky to acquire him after the difficult decision to trade Smart.

At the same time, Smart was enormous for our franchise, had the ability to come up with the most clutch plays, and left it all on the floor for our franchise. Switching out Jrue for Smart isn't why our team is 'so much better' this year, it's because we added a unicorn at the Center position.

And we are going to need KP if we are going to go all the way this year. We've had a cakewalk of a playoff run this year. We've earned it because of our record, but we haven't faced anything like the 2022 Bucks or 2023 Sixers yet - excellent teams we were able to overcome.

I think Marcus was part of the problem.  He had big moments, but he also made plenty of stupid or lazy plays.  His effort was really off and on the last few seasons.

Two seasons ago, he won DPOY; and last season, he had a fantastic playoff run both offensively and defensively. Calling him lazy just seems disingenuous. I believe Brad when he said it was difficult to trade Smart and that it was never his intention at all.

I get that people hated Smart, but we just watched Jrue stink up the joint for the Miami series and the first two games of the CLE series. He's been great these last 4 games - and I genuinely hope he continues to be great - but it's not like he's been our lord and savior. He's been very good, just like Smart has been very good. Why can't people just leave it at that?

Because people have a different opinion?

[SCeltic34]

There was an article in the Athletic yesterday.  Talked about not just Jrue, but his wife Lauren.  Some excerpts:

Holiday’s Milwaukee Bucks teammates called him the missing piece of their championship run three years ago. It wasn’t just for how he defended. It was how he kept the locker room together and helped his teammates grow on and off the court.

After years of coming up short, the Boston Celtics brought him in to do the same thing.

But he doesn’t do it alone. When you trade for Holiday, you trade for Lauren too. He and Lauren welcomed teammates into their family, hosting dinners and doing community service. They sought to intertwine their lives away from the game.

“It’s almost synonymous. I don’t think of Jrue without thinking of Lauren,” former Bucks assistant coach Chad Forcier said. “Just two of my favorite people I’ve ever encountered, like, as humans. Whoever encounters Jrue and Lauren, you just come away feeling better about life, about humanity.”

What Holiday brought to Milwaukee was a sense of community. He helped build chemistry with his teammates.

“I don’t just look at him as a basketball player, man, he was a true friend of mine,” Khris Middleton said. “Off the court, he was able to make everybody around here comfortable by being able to talk to him, being able to hang out, being able to throw anything on him.”

For Holiday, he believes that trust is the foundation for any team sport — it’s difficult to win without it.

“For me, just knowing the person next to me, I trust them and they trust me just as much as I trust them,” he said. “Again, it just makes not only life, but it makes basketball, so much more fun to play.”

Lauren retired in 2015 to start a family, just as Holiday was trying to get healthy and bring his career on track with the New Orleans Pelicans. They became fixtures in the New Orleans community, founding the JLH Fund as Holiday donated $5 million to initiatives supporting minority communities.

As he entered his prime and started making All-Defensive teams, the Bucks came calling. While the spotlight shone brighter, Lauren was there to keep his ego and life in check.

“She was always there to keep me humble and just to know that in our household, I’m not the best,” Holiday said. “Then through the hard times, she was always there to steer me in the right direction. Helping me in stressful situations, ‘What do I do about basketball?’ She’s just always my support system.”

Holiday’s perspective on life shifted when Lauren faced her biggest challenge. In 2016, a few months before the due date of their first child, doctors discovered Lauren had a brain tumor that would require surgery.

Holiday asked himself, “What do I do about basketball?” The answer was to pause, staying home for the first three weeks of the season to take care of Lauren and their newborn daughter, Jrue Tyler.

“I think Jrue just followed his heart. He was like, ‘I’m absolutely taking time off, and I’m going to be with you,’” Lauren said. “Watching him navigate that, I think he grew tremendously in that time and being able to be like a rock for so many people, I feel like it’s just the epitome of what Jrue is.”

Lauren said the second he signed the contract, they discussed how they could help the community. She asked her husband where they wanted to plant their roots, “Because I think for Jrue and I, it feels like home when we’re serving others.”

Then as the playoffs began shortly after his extension, Holiday was scoring in the single digits, but Boston was still rolling. It didn’t matter.

“As long as I’ve known Jrue, he couldn’t care less about accolades,” Lauren said. “It holds no weight for him. I think the only thing he cares about is how his teammates feel about him.”

Most of his teammates refer to him as their brother. He’s garnered many fans among his teammates — past and present — in the league.

“His positive energy in the locker room, his talent being able to play both sides of the floor, put us in a position to be successful,” Antetokounmpo said.

“I wish him the best in his journey with Boston. They got a good one.”

The Celtics brought him in to win the title. Playing to win and sacrificing for the team, is what Holiday has built his career on.

“I think championships are going to be important to him, but I think it’s how has he made other people better and seen their success?” Lee said. “There’s no phony to him. That’s the best part. … He’s just so confident in who he is and it’s hard to find.”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5499499/2024/05/21/jrue-holiday-boston-celtics-lauren-us-soccer/

These people are winners both on and off the court/field.  Genuinely quality people.

I love Jrue.  Don't need to compare him to Smart.  If we win banner 18 this year, Jrue will be a massive reason why.  And I'll buy his jersey.

[Phantom255x]

The Jrue Flu Game