The Milwaukee Bucks emptied their pockets to acquire Jrue Holiday this offseason, and several general managers believe it will be worth it.
Aside from Giannis Antetokounmpo’s recently signed extension, no storyline has dominated the Milwaukee Bucks’ offseason more than the acquisition of Jrue Holiday.
The Bucks shocked the NBA fandom when news broke that they had traded for the guard as they gave up a king’s ransom to bring him aboard. Milwaukee shipped out Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, three future first round picks, and the rights to two future pick swaps to the New Orleans Pelicans in the deal that ended up being a four-team trade.
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Some considered it a severe overpay for a guard with just one year left on his current deal, but Holiday has the opportunity to make an immediate impact on this Milwaukee team. In fact, many of the higher-ups across the league agree that Holiday could be the missing piece to the puzzle.
Following an eventful offseason, the 19th annual GM survey that was recently conducted by NBA.com’s John Schuhmann got the opinions of general managers across the league on a multitude of topics. The Bucks were featured heavily throughout the returns, mostly due to Giannis Antetokounmpo, but Holiday earned some recognition himself.
Holiday received votes for being the most underrated player acquisition, along with being labeled as the most surprising move of the offseason. Both certainly deserved to be in the conversation, but the most compelling result was undoubtedly where they voted Holiday amongst the most impactful offseason additions.
Having finished with 33 percent of the votes, Holiday got sandwiched between Chris Paul being traded to the Phoenix Suns (44 percent) and Serge Ibaka joining the LA Clippers (seven percent) for the top three most impactful moves.
Are the general managers justified in believing Jrue Holiday will be among the most impactful new additions this offseason?
Up until this offseason, the Pelicans had only dangled Jrue Holiday in trade discussions. Finally, they started taking regular calls on someone that teams had closely monitored for years. New Orleans knew that if they made him available, contending teams would give up a substantial haul to get him, and that is exactly what the Bucks did.
The Bucks desperately needed to upgrade at the point guard position this offseason, and they hit a homerun with Holiday. Arguably the best two-way guard in the league, Holiday brings a desirable amount of shooting, playmaking, defense, and toughness to this Milwaukee team in the backcourt.
The guard has been among the most underrated players in the association for years, having averaged 19.7 points on .475/.338/.758 shooting splits, 4.7 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 1.6 steals per game over the past three seasons. Where Holiday has received the proper recognition is on the defensive end where he has earned two All-Defensive honors and the mantle as the best guard defender in the league by several of his peers.
Now, he can display his often-overlooked talents on a Bucks team fighting for a championship. The Bucks dished out a hefty assortment of assets to acquire Holiday this offseason, but if he can be as impactful as several general managers have pegged him to be, it will undoubtedly have been worth the price.