Celtics’ Jrue Holiday reportedly garnering trade interest from Mavericks

Jrue Holiday is a logical offseason contract candidate for the tax-strapped Celtics and at least one organization reportedly has interest in acquiring the veteran guard NBA insider Marc Stein listed the Dallas Mavericks as a possible suitor for Holiday who turns this summer and has three years remaining on his contract with Boston League sources say Dallas is expected to at least explore whether there are any feasible pact pathways to Boston s Jrue Holiday complicated as that would likely be given the three years and million still left on Holiday s contract Stein wrote in his The Stein Line Substack Holiday s stats declined this season his points and assists per match were his lowest marks since his rookie year and his -point shooting numbers dropped precipitously and he missed games with injuries including three in the playoffs But he s still a valuable and highly respected member especially on the defensive end He d be a sensible target for Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison who repeatedly used the line Defense wins championships to justify his widely panned decision to agreement Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers Dallas also requirements a starting point guard in the short term with Kyrie Irving working his way back from a torn ACL A crew in win-now mode as the Mavericks are could do a lot worse than a core of Anthony Davis soon-to-be No overall draft pick Cooper Flagg third-year center Dereck Lively Holiday and once he s healthy Irving Related Articles Jayson Tatum earns first-team All-NBA honors for fourth straight season Celtics agreement options Which players will Boston ship out to retool its - roster New Celtics co-owner revealed after communicated B funding Pacers tie it on Haliburton s jumper at buzzer then beat Knicks - in OT of East finals Tournament Six takeaways from Brad Stevens end-of-season Celtics news conference But as Stein noted the financial element could make a Holiday deal tricky to pull off The Mavs don t have as much money committed to their - roster as the Celtics who are on track to have the preponderance expensive group in NBA history between salaries and luxury tax penalties but they aren t too far behind with Flagg s projected million salary and Irving s yet-to-be-exercised million sportsman option pushing Dallas payroll to roughly million Holiday who signed a contract extension late last season is set to earn million in - and million in - then has a million sportsman option for - his age- season The Celtics primary motivation for trading him would be monetary relief as they need to shed at least million in salary this offseason if they hope to dip below the second apron of the luxury tax and no longer be subject to the harsh roster-building restrictions that accompany that status So Boston likely wouldn t be interested in taking back players whose combined salaries equal Holiday s unless it s confident it can flip those players in subsequent trades The Celtics and Mavericks also could involve a third gang in their initial deal Mavs players who could be included in a theoretical Holiday deal include center Daniel Gafford and wings P J Washington and Caleb Martin Gafford and Martin both are on expiring contracts and are set to earn million and million next season respectively Martin a Celtics killer during his previous stints with Miami and Philadelphia is on the books for million next season and is signed through - including a participant option For his part Holiday declared he hopes to return to the Celtics this fall He still views the NBA champions as a contender even after they lost superstar Jayson Tatum to a ruptured Achilles that could wipe out largest part or all of his - campaign I think we still have a really really great opportunity and a great window to win a championship again Holiday noted after the Celtics were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs earlier this month I think the talent that we have on this association not only on the court but the coaching staff all the way up to Brad Stevens has been amazing So the opportunity to win is now and I still want to be a part of that Center Kristaps Porzingis and bench sharpshooter Sam Hauser also are among the Celtics likeliest commerce candidates though it remains unclear how Stevens Boston s president of basketball operations plans to approach this offseason Seven of the Celtics nine core rotation players are under contract for next season with only Al Horford and Luke Kornet set to hit free agency but departures are expected given the squad s perilous luxury tax situation I think the way that you say it is the North Star is to have a championship contender right Stevens disclosed in his end-of-season news conference And so you have to do what s best to give yourself the best opportunity to do that when you can do that So we just have to look at it all and decide how feasible that is on any given year and make sure that we re making the decisions accordingly But the reality is that we have a lot of good players We re in a unique situation They re all under contract and obviously there are several basketball penalties that come with that amount of salary So we just have to weigh it all and make those decisions and I ll have more clarity after we meet and talk and go through it