NBA
What are Jrue Holiday’s contract details with the Boston Celtics?
The Celtics continue to connect the dots and ensure the continuity of their core for the future.
A champion with the Bucks and an Olympian less than three years ago (something that he aspires to repeat this season), Jrue Holiday (33) has signed an extension worth $135 million with the Boston Celtics. LeBron James, Stephen Curry and his teammate Al Horford all did the same at his age, putting him amongst great names.
A star defensive player, Jrue will have earned more than $380 in NBA contracts alone with this new deal. The latest one comes with a player option in the fourth season, guaranteeing him a star salary until 2028, when he will be 37-years-old. The deal had been rumoured for some time, but now it is fact.
A two-time All-Star and three times a member of the Best Defensive Quintet, Jrue was key to the Bucks’ success in 2021 and ended up in the Wisconsin team’s rival in the East in recent years; the Celtics took advantage of the merry-go-round set off by the transfer of Damian Lillard.
What are Jrue Holiday’s numbers this season?
The Blazers received Jrue and redirected him to Boston: since then they have been clear that they want to maintain the core that is performing at an extraordinary level this season (more than 60 wins and the favourite for the title)... at any price.
With less offensive responsibility than in the Bucks, especially when Khris Middleton was missing due to injury, Jrue averages 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists and is putting up his best numbers from the three-point line in his entire career, 43% that jumps to an extraordinary 62% on shots from the corners.
The Celtics have replicated what they did with Kristaps Porzingis: first the transfer, then an extension; in the case of Porzingis it was two years and $60 million, which guaranteed him $96 million until 2026.
The Celtics are connecting the dots before the climax of the season, the playoffs, and are preparing to keep intact the block that has fit together so wonderfully until now. In the same way that Porzingis did not get to the end of his extension, Jrue rejected his player option of $37.3 million to sign a new agreement that will put him at $30.1 million next season.
It is a tight squeeze getting elbow room in the accounts of the 2024-25 season for the Celtics who are going to have to get used to living with very high luxury tax figures.
How do the luxury tax aprons work in NBA?
The NBA has a ceiling of $7 million above the luxury tax level and another of $17.5 million. Teams that exceed the first apron face restrictions on transfers and signings, as well as penalties that become truly harmful in cases of crossing the second apron.
You cannot use the mid-level exception of paying luxury tax, which allows franchisees to strengthen their roster without incurring financial strain.
As such, you cannot use money in transfers nor add or combine salaries to make a trade for a player with a higher salary, and there are also restrictions in the buyout market... Also, whoever exceeds that second apron three times in a five-year period will see their next first-round draft pick move to the bottom of that round.
Which team has the most expensive roster in the NBA?
For next season, (the exact figure will not be made public until July) the salary limit will be around $141 million (this season it is $136m), an increase that does not reach the maximum of 10%, which puts a cap slightly on the figures of the contracts that come into force. The limit of the luxury tax will be $172 million in staff salaries, the first limit of $179m and the feared second, at $190m.
The Celtics, of course, are going to pay a lot and are going to have to pull their weight. But their ambition is realistic and within the limits. This season, they are already at more than $183 million in salaries, the fourth-highest figure, ahead of the Bucks (just over $182m) and behind the Suns (around $188m), Clippers (around $200m) and Warriors (more than $205m).
When the luxury tax amounts are added, we obviously get the most expensive rosters in NBA history: the Warriors are at $176m ($381m in total), the Clippers at $142m ($342m), the Suns at $68m ($360m), the Celtics at almost $40m ($223m) and the Bucks at $52m ($234m).
On a sporting level, there is a huge difference between the Celtics’ performance this season and that of others. So, for now, the effort is worth it while waiting to secure that 18th ring, their first since 2008 and the second since 1986.
How much is Jaylen Brown’s contract worth?
The extensions for Jrue and Porzingis are added to that of Jaylen Brown, famous for being the first that could have reached $300 million although it will not end up being that much: with the increase in the cap below 10%, Brown’s new contract is around $285 million for five years with more than $49 million next season.
And along comes Jayson Tatum, a franchise player who aspires to greatness and more than $330 million until 2030 (giving up his player option for the 2025-26 academic year). If this agreement is taken for granted, as it should be, there remains only one question in the quintet of the Greens: Derrick White.
He only has this season and one more (for a $19.5 million contract), and he could not seal an extension in October and will have to sit down and talk to the franchise again in the summer. We will see how much money there is and if it is better for him to sign or wait to hit the market as a free agent in the summer of 2025. He is 29-years-old compared to Jrue at 33, Porzingis at 28 and Tatum at 26. Horford (37) also has a contract next season ($9.5 million), so they will continue to be very important substitutes with manageable contracts like Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser.
With these figures that are being handled for next year ($141 million cap), the pressure will be at a maximum. The Celtics are almost guaranteed to move in that second restrictive limit, although with Jrue’s reduction (by rejecting his player option and having a lower salary next season) they could try be below before the next winter closure. The starting quintet has secured around $163 million, to which we must now add the salaries of Horford, Hauser, Pritchard...
Making a reliable rotation will be very difficult this summer and even more so a year later, when Tatum’s extension and perhaps White’s extension come into effect. With the Jays on for over $100 million between them, there will be more than $170 million guaranteed on just four players: $53.7m from Brown, about $54.6m from Tatum, $30.7m from Porzingis and $m32.5 from Jrue. If we add a hypothetical extension of White that would undoubtedly have to be above $20 million annually.
A quintet worth almost $200 million starting in 2025? The Celtics appear on their way to that future, and will have to operate in this new scenario that the recently signed agreement has created for those who have no problem spending and spending (bad news for the Warriors and Clippers).
If the Celtics do not end their so-far-so-good season with a title, there will be talk about the risk being too much and about how much can be changed while keeping everything healthy. But right now they can’t afford to think like that: winning here and now is the only option. And the best way to do so - or at least the way they know best - is by spending not just big, but huge.