Media and fans have speculated that Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis are the most likely Boston Celtics players to be traded in a big game of financial Jenga this summer. The pair is set to make a combined $63.1 million in the 2025-26 season. Sending out that sort of salary should make the Cs' salary-shedding goals easier to achieve.
The $104.4 million that Holiday is owed over the next three seasons may make teams a bit more hesitant to trade for him, compared to Porzingis' expiring $30 million contract. Holiday could very well opt into the final year of his deal in the 2027-28 season to make $37.2 million at age 37.
Nonetheless, there have still been some rumblings about what the two-time champion's market could look like. The most recent of which came from Marc Stein in his Monday newsletter.
"League sources say Dallas is expected to at least explore whether there are any feasible trade pathways to Boston's Jrue Holiday — complicated as that would likely be given the three years and $104 million still left on Holiday's contract," Stein wrote.
Whatever moves are coming for the Celtics will be primarily motivated by cap relief
Now, as disappointing as Boston's second-round exit was this spring, it's not the reason why there are so many trade rumors flying around. Those rumors would probably be at the same volume, even if the Celtics had gone on to win another NBA Championship.
That's just the reality of today's NBA with the latest update to its collective bargaining agreement. Since 2023, things have grown far more difficult for franchises whose total salary exceeds the $207.8 million second apron.
Teams that spend over that threshold are met with several consequences. They're restricted from doing things like being able to aggregate salaries in trades, take back additional salary in trades, use any mid-level exceptions to sign free agents, and trade future draft picks.
Boston specifically is at risk of seeing their first-round pick automatically fall to 30th, since they have spent above the second round in each of the past two seasons. If they do so again in any of the next three, then that risk will become reality.
In order for the Celtics to evade the dreaded threshold, they'll need to shed roughly $20 million in salary. Now, that doesn't sound that hard, but when factoring in whatever players they'd receive in return in hypothetical trades, it gets a bit trickier.
That's why Holiday and Porzingis are the first names that come to mind in trying to solve this payment puzzle.
What would the return for Holiday look like if he were traded to the Mavericks?
Well, as of now, there hasn't been any reporting about what the Mavericks would be willing to give up in a trade for Holiday. All that we can do is sit back and speculate, for the time being.
With that being said, Boston could covet a center like Daniel Gafford in any potential deal. The Celtics could be without Porzingis, should they trade him, and possibly Al Horford and Luke Kornet, who are both unrestricted free agents this summer. Plus, Gafford is on a $14.4 million expiring contract, which could save them roughly $18 million if they weren't to take any additional players back besides him.
Any Holiday-Gafford trade would probably require getting a third team with cap space involved, like the Brooklyn Nets. It may take some draft capital from both teams, but the Nets could absorb someone like PJ Washington ($14.1 million expiring) or Caleb Martin (two years/ $9 million per), to help Dallas land Holiday and stay beneath the second apron themselves.
Again, this is all speculation, but a deal involving those pieces likely sends all three teams walking away happy.