Throughout the 2023-24 NBA season, one major theme with the Boston Celtics has been sacrifice. With star offseason additions to an already-loaded roster, everyone had to buy in and sacrifice their role to an extent. However, no player has sacrificed and adapted more than Jrue Holiday. Let’s dive into Holiday’s incredible impact and new role with the Celtics.
Jrue Holiday’s Incredible Sacrifice This Season
Reduced Offensive Role
The most noticeable change for Holiday has been a lesser offensive load. Holiday is averaging 13 PPG and 10.9 field goal attempts per game; both numbers are the lowest since his rookie year. Holiday averaged 19.3 PPG last season with the Milwaukee Bucks. In his three seasons with the Bucks and previous stint with the New Orleans Pelicans, Holiday was the second or, at times, the third option offensively. Now, he is the fourth or fifth option with the Celtics; that’s a tough change. Holiday’s offensive responsibilities have changed significantly from his time with the Bucks, where he was a primary shot-creator and initiated the majority of the offense.
With the Celtics, Holiday is spotting up more and creating far less. Holiday’s catch-and-shoot frequency is at a career-high of 20.5%. He is also shooting 60.5% on corner threes, which ranks among the best in the league. While Holiday’s isolation frequency is at a career-low of 7.5%, his 17.2% usage rate is also a career-low. Holiday’s playmaking responsibilities have also changed in his new role, as he still initiates much of the offense. However, sharing ball-handling duties with Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown has made Holiday more of a connective playmaker than the primary playmaker he has been throughout his career. Recently, Holiday was asked about these sacrifices. He gave a candid answer acknowledging the difference between the Celtics and Bucks’ situations while saying he’s not mad at the sacrifices he had to make, as everybody makes them.
"I appreciate KP saying that… I'm not mad at my situation, I'm not mad at the sacrifices I have to make… everybody makes them."
Jrue Holiday candidly responds to Kristaps Porzingis saying he sacrifices the most on this Celtics team pic.twitter.com/M42EYLQaP5
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) January 9, 2024
A Defensive Swiss Army Knife
Holiday’s elite defense has been one of his biggest strengths throughout his career. Despite being surrounded by elite defenders, the five-time All-Defensive player might have the most important defensive role in his career this season. Holiday has a strong case as the best perimeter defender in the league. His elite combination of size, strength, IQ, speed, and positioning make him a matchup nightmare for opposing guards. In addition to guarding elite backcourt players, Holiday often guards big forwards and even centers.
Holiday guards opposing forwards 36.9% of the time and centers 11.6% of the time. To put these numbers in perspective, they are both career highs for Holiday, who has long been known as one of the league’s most versatile defenders. Furthermore, Marcus Smart won Defensive Player of the Year in 2022, largely due to his elite versatility. Holiday’s time on forwards and centers outweighs Smart’s time in 2022. Ultimately, this level of versatility from a guard is rare. Using Holiday in this way is crucial to the Celtics’ defensive strategy and is a huge factor in the Celtics’ third-ranked defense. As a result of constantly changing matchups, offenses are never comfortable against Boston, and Kristaps Porzingis can create chaos as an off-ball roamer.
Jrue Holiday: A Star In His Role
Ultimately, Holiday has perfectly adapted to his new role with the Celtics. While he now has a lesser role offensively, you could argue this is his career’s most significant defensive role. Holiday is still a high-level creator and scorer, as we saw recently when he had a team-high 22 points in a win against the Toronto Raptors. However, most nights, the Celtics need Holiday to play a different role, and that’s perfectly fine. On a team with this much talent and championship aspirations, everyone needs to make sacrifices and focus on the bigger team goal. No player better embodies this on the Celtics than Holiday. He makes an incredible all-around impact and gives Boston a little bit of everything. He is the ideal complementary player every championship team needs.
