The Jrue Holiday deal just proved the Boston Celtics’ willingness to make trades as soon as possible, and with the 2025 NBA Draft right around the corner, more moves could be incoming. If the Celtics want to capitalize on adding draft picks in this year’s draft and trading players on their current contracts, making moves in the next two days will be crucial.
By trading Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2024-25 league year rather than waiting until July, the Celtics didn’t necessarily show their desire to rush things, but they did display some semblance of urgency. What exactly that urgency is related to is unclear.
But the fact that they did this move before the draft doesn’t seem like a coincidence.
More Celtics trades may happen before the NBA Draft
The Celtics could have waited to make trades once the dust settled after the NBA Draft. Instead, they moved Holiday the day after the NBA Finals wrapped up. Confetti is probably still falling in Oklahoma City, and Holiday is already moving to Portland.
If the Celtics want to add any draft capital or trade any of their own, they need to act fast. Not only does this deal prove that they are willing to do that, but it also creates a lingering feeling that they may want to.
Perhaps a deal will be as simple as packaging their own picks to move up. Or maybe Sam Hauser gets flipped in exchange for a late first or a couple of second-rounders. At this point, even Anfernee Simons himself, the guy Boston got back in the Holiday trade, could be rerouted.
Boston knew this deal could be completed before the league year turned out. They knew what the timing of the deal would be. Nothing Brad Stevens and the front office do is by accident. Coincidences rarely exist in Boston.
They want to be active before the new league year hits, and the most obvious reason is that some of the trades that may be in the woodwork are more than likely tied to picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. It makes too much sense.
Nothing has been reported. Nothing has been confirmed. But by trading Holiday right now—not in a few days, not during free agency, but right now before the draft—it makes reality seem all too clear.
More Celtics trades seem inevitable in the next 48 hours before the NBA Draft kicks off on June 25.