When Jrue Holiday joined the Portland Trail Blazers, plenty of folks viewed him as a Malcolm Brogdon-esque type of addition. In other words, Holiday would serve as a veteran guard who performs well in increments but never becomes anything integral to the team and is traded for assets.
That viewpoint has quickly aged as poorly as possible. Holiday has been the facilitating force Portland has needed for years, and the thought of potentially trading him, which felt like a real possibility heading into the season, now shouldn't even cross the minds of Joe Cronin and the Blazers' front office. Holiday has been impactful enough to quickly remove himself from any potential trade discussions.
From the surface, a rebuilding Blazers team trading the expiring contract of 26 year-old Anfernee Simons for the multi-year contract of 35 year-old Jrue Holiday was somewhat baffling. But that confusion came mostly from the thought that Holiday wouldn't be a huge difference-maker in PDX. Now that he is becoming that difference-maker, Holiday's contract looks like a positive, not a negative.
Jrue Holiday quickly looks like a great veteran presence in Portland
With potentially three years remaining on his contract (Holiday has a player option for 2027-28), the Blazers shouldn't even entertain the idea of trading Holiday right now. Why would they? He's the best passer on the team by a comfortable margin, brings a steadying hand to the Blazers otherwise inconsistent offense, and is under team control for multiple years.
I don't care about "fitting the timeline" when a player is simply good and making the team better every day. That's exactly what Holiday is doing right now. Often, we get caught up during rebuilds about making sure every move is forward-thinking and future-oriented. Sometimes, it's okay to have good, old players and that's exactly what Jrue Holiday is!
If Holiday's stellar play isn't enough of a reason to not even consider trading him (which I believe it is), the Blazers untrustworthy guard rotation outside of him definitely is. After a fun start, Blake Wesley is now sidelined with an injury, Scoot Henderson still hasn't made his season debut, and Sidy Cissoko is still mostly an unknown. In other words, Holiday is the only sure thing in this backcourt.
Maybe in 2028, Holiday's $37 million player option looks like a sunk cost. But that's long enough from now to question whether our civilization will still be intact, so I'm not too concerned about it. If you're concerned about that, consider that if Holiday is still a Blazer in three years, far more went right than it went wrong.
Embrace the old man at point guard on a rebuilding team — it's fun!