Boston Celtics: Pass or pursue on 7 marquee free agents
By Mark Nilon
Potential Boston Celtics free-agent target No. 5) Justin Holiday
Recently, we discussed the idea of pursuing Jrue Holiday via offseason trade. Today, we discuss the idea of signing his brother, Justin Holiday, outright via free agency which, in my humble opinion, is probably the better move to make for the Boston Celtics.
This is not to say we believe Justin to be a better talent than Jrue. This is, however, taking into account the fact that the cost in which it would take to acquire Justin would be far less than it would to acquire Jrue and, frankly, the former Holiday better fills an area of weakness that Boston must address this offseason — the talent pool within their secondary-unit.
The C’s bench wound up ranking 29th in points per game (28.5), 28th in 3-point efficiency, and 20th in offensive rating (53.6) during the 2019-20 campaign. This offseason, they should prioritize adding cost-efficient scorers with their MLE.
Holiday could prove to be a prime suitor for such a deal.
An underrated 3-and-D role player, the 31-year-old found himself posting career-best averages of 8.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.2 steals per game on 43 percent shooting from the floor and 41 percent shooting from downtown.
Thrusting him into the rotation alongside a guy like Marcus Smart off the pine would both help the team’s second-unit defensively — averaged a 1.8 defensive box plus-minus rating last season — and offensively, specifically in the long-range department (36 percent career 3-point shooter).