Holiday deal paying off big for Bucks
SOMETIMES, NBA TEAMS HAVE TO ROLL THE DICE TO CAPTURE A CHAMPIONSHIP
The arrival of Jrue Holiday in Milwaukee is the gift that keeps on giving.
Forget all you heard about the overpay the Bucks made to pry the in-demand Holiday away from the New Orleans Pelicans. The cost was worth it long before these NBA playoffs even began.
The deal for Holiday with the Pelicans was made Nov. 16. Initially, it was thought to be a two-team deal but by the time it was finalized almost a week later, the transaction had expanded to include two other teams.
Holiday was headed to the Bucks along with Sam Merrill, the 60th pick in the 2020 draft.
The Pelicans would get Steven Adams from Oklahoma City, Eric Bledsoe from Milwaukee and two future Bucks first round picks in addition to the right to swap two additional future first rounders with Milwaukee.
Denver received RJ Hampton, the Bucks’ first round pick in 2020, while the Thunder would get a future first rounder from Denver, George Hill from Milwaukee in addition to four prospects from New Orleans and two future second-round picks from the Pelicans.
It’s a complicated deal, but from Milwaukee’s standpoint a pretty simple goal was achieved.
By acquiring Holiday, Bucks ownership sent a clear signal to Giannis Antetokounmpo that they were serious about winning. Weeks later, Antetokounmpo would make official his commitment to the Bucks signing a supermax extension, ending any speculation about him jumping ship.
By itself, that alone justified the cost in draft picks and players it took to bring Holiday to Milwaukee.
His strip and steal of Devin Booker in the dying seconds of a pivotal Game 5 win in the NBA Finals was just added interest on the already cashed in payment.
Then for Holiday to have the audacity to throw the lob to Antetokounmpo that sealed the win was just more evidence of how ridiculous the basketball community can be in assessing deals in the immediate aftermath of them being made.
Holiday’s reputation around the league was well established when the Bucks dealt for him.
Pat Connaughton, himself a key part of this Bucks’ run, knew immediately the team had changed for the better the minute he learned of the trade.
“I saw it in Portland, when he was in New Orleans and we got swept in the first round,” Connaughton said, going back to his days with the Trail Blazers. “Just the way he defends on a nightly basis and the way that he’s able to do it in different ways. He’s physical, he’s quick, he’s strong. He’s got a lot of things to him. And he’s got quick hands. First Team All Defensive play.
“It was a defensive play of the year,” he said of the timely strip of Booker.
Connaughton, though, wasn’t done giving that particular play its proper due.
“He’s a winner,” he said in continuing to speak about Holiday. “He makes winning plays, they’re defence, they’re offence, they’re all over the court. He’s a great teammate off the court and he’s a great teammate on the court ... That was an instinctual play. He saw time/ score, he saw D-book trying to go downhill on the spin, and he just had the ability to have hand-eye co-ordination, find the ball, rip it and then understand time/score on the other side. Come down, there’s a lot of guys that would dribble it out and try to waste more time. But he knew the time, he knew the score and he knew a bucket would kind of be a back-breaker.
“He threw it to where there may only be one or two individuals in the world that could get it.”
Go back through the many breakdowns of that Holiday trade from last November and the most common description starts with ‘costly’ and goes to ‘overpay.’
In reality that is just the cost of doing business, assuming the actual end goal of your business is, in fact, going for a championship.
It’s almost laughable that people tried to disparage this deal when it was made.
Granted, deals of that magnitude aren’t done that often but you only have to go back to a deal made three years ago Sunday for another example of a franchise that put everything on the line to go for it.
Masai Ujiri has spoken often about how much he second-guessed himself and agonized before pulling the trigger on the deal that would bring Kawhi Leonard and ultimately a championship to Toronto.
He knew he was opening himself up to the second guessers and even internal strife by sending the uber-popular Demar Derozan, along with Jakob Poeltl and a first-round pick, to San Antonio for a then-disgruntled Leonard and another key piece in guard Danny Green.
Jon Horst wasn’t trading away a fan favourite but he was dealing a good piece of the team’s future as well as key assets to get Holiday. Nor was he dealing for an individual who had to be convinced he was going to land in a good spot. Holiday has made it very clear that he saw the advantages of joining a potential winning combo like the Bucks had in Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton.
Holiday ended any suspense about his long-term situation in Milwaukee in April when he signed a four-year extension with the Bucks that will pay him at least US$134 million over the course of the contract.
Brokering a deal for an elite player isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes guts, but the payoff can be huge.
HE’S PHYSICAL, HE’S QUICK, HE’S STRONG.