A first round pick! Is Holiday, who is about to be 35 years old, worth it?

The Celtics career belonging to Holiday may be over.

After the Celtics were eliminated in the second round, there have been constant reports that due to the serious luxury tax problem, the Celtics' core lineup will collapse this summer, among which Porzingis may be traded.

However, because Porzingis's performance in the playoffs is too outrageous and his health has not been good in the past two years, it is not easy to send him away. In this context, if the Celtics still want to continue to save money and get certain positive assets through transactions, then the one who is truly the most likely to be traded is actually Holiday.

The player Holiday is familiar with. His name always appears in the "most underrated player" in previous years. Of course, Holiday is indeed a very good player. Not only is his quality good, but his skills are also underestimated. In the first year of his two trades, he has brought a championship to the Bucks and Celtics respectively.

Only talk about the title last year, Holiday's performance was really outstanding.

In the regular season, Holiday played 69 games for the Celtics, averaging 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. The shooting percentages of the three events are 48.0%/42.9%/83.3%, and the real shooting percentage is 59.7%.

The playoffs are even more crazy. In the Celtics' 18th Championship journey, Holiday played 19 games at full attendance, averaging 13.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, shooting percentage of 50.3%/40.2%/95.5% in three events, and shooting percentage of 61.7%.

What is particularly outstanding is that in the G1 of the Eastern Conference Finals and G2 of the Finals, Holiday scored 28 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 26 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists, respectively. The Celtics won both games.

In addition to G3 in the Eastern Conference Finals, he also gave a key 2+1 and a steal to kill the game at the last moment.

It is worth mentioning that because of its outstanding performance in the regular season, the Celtics reached a four-year, $134 million early contract renewal with Holiday before the start of the playoffs.

For this contract renewal, at that time, especially after winning the championship, the general view from the outside world: Although Holiday was a little older, he was a rare treasure player and brought the Celtics a championship, worth it.

However, it seems that things have changed a little more in this year.

The Celtics failed in this season of early elimination, and Holiday's decline is definitely one of them.

In the regular season, Holiday played 62 games and averaged only 11.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game. His scores and assists were the lowest since the rookie year, and rebounds were the lowest since 2017. In terms of efficiency, Holiday last season made nearly elite shooting, but this season, his shooting percentage and three-point shooting percentage dropped to 48.0% and 35.3%, respectively, and his real shooting percentage was only 56.5%, which is the lowest for Holiday since 2021.

Originally, many people thought that Holiday was just pretending to be dead in the regular season and stood up again in the playoffs. However, when the playoffs really came, Holiday not only did not stand up, but his performance was even worse. In 11 games this year in the playoffs, Holiday played only 8 of them, averaging 9.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, and the shooting percentages of the three events were 48.9%/31.6%/60.0%, which was completely incomparable to the previous year's "50+40+95".

It should be affirmed that Holiday's performance on the defensive end is relatively good, especially in the second round, the two players with the most main defense are Brunson and Towns, who defended 123 rounds and 78 rounds. The two of them scored 25 points in 7 of 24 and 10 of 20 rounds, and 25 points in 25 points respectively.

This is also the most outstanding thing about Holiday at this stage. He can not only defend the defender, but also switch to the forward and even the inside. He has the defense replacement ability required by the championship team, and it is definitely enough to fight tough battles.

But the problem is also obvious. Holiday's offense is a bit serious, and from past performance, it seems that the accuracy of the 2023-24 season is the "abnormal phenomenon" - in the three seasons of playing for the Bucks, Holiday's three-point shooting percentages in the playoffs were 30.3%, 31.6%, and 28.6% for three consecutive years, and the real shooting percentages were 48.2%, 46.1%, and 49.1%.

Yes, even in the 2021 championship season, Holiday's offense did not reach the qualified level. His overly outstanding defense covered up his inefficiency on the offensive end, and in the first year of the Celtics, he won a big contract with his rapid offensive performance.

The big contract has 3 years and 104 million yuan left, and it is worth noting that Holiday is about to be 35 years old. In other words, he will have to earn an annual salary of 37.2 million yuan at the age of 37.

The latest news is that the Celtics ask for Holiday is a player with a first-round pick and contract smaller than Holiday. At the same time, there are many teams in the market pursuing Holiday, including the Mavericks, Clippers and other teams.

No matter for any team, a first-round pick for Holiday, who is 35 years old and 104 million yuan, will be a very risky attempt. After all, no one can say what level of Holiday's offense will be next season and how long will his defensive state be maintained.

If it is good, it might be able to reproduce the surprises of the Bucks and Celtics, but if it is bad, it not only will it lose the first round pick, but it also takes over a premium contract - the question is, if it is a first round pick, do you think your home team should pursue Holiday?