UCLA Basketball: All-Star Ex-Bruin Becomes Collateral Damage In Damian Lillard Trade

Rough treatment after a great regular season.

After a terrific regular season run in 2022-23 (and a less-than-terrific postseason), former UCLA Bruins standout Jrue Holiday has now become the centerpiece in a three-team deal that will send All-NBA Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks, where he will compete for championship glory with his now-best ever teammate, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Ironically, it was just yesterday that an interview with Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel was published wherein Holiday, 33, said this of his tenure with the Bucks:

"Would love to [finish my career in Milwaukee]," he said. "Before I even won here I think I said I'm a Buck for life and I mean that like deep in my heart. I don't want to play for any other team. I think we have a chance to continue to do great things as the Bucks team and organization so I want to be in Milwaukee."

Ouch.

Holiday has a $37.4 million player option for the 2024-25 season. It seems very likely that a Portland team now prioritizing the development of two lottery blue chip guards, Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, will now look to reroute the 6'4" guard yet again, as he is very much a win-now type player within the right system. Holiday helped take Milwaukee get over the championship hump upon being flipped to the club in the summer of 2020 by the New Orleans Pelicans, and the franchise subsequently won its first title in 50 years that season. 

He's been an All-Defensive Team selection across all of three of his seasons with the Bucks, but has had severe issues connecting as a shooter during the postseason when the game slows down. Across all three of his playoff runs with the Bucks, Zach Kram of The Ringer reports that Holiday had the 42nd-best true shooting percentage among players with at least 300 shot attempts... out of 43 players. Damian Lillard is one of the most elite shooters in the NBA, coming off a career scoring season. Though he is an atrocious positional defender, he gives Milwaukee the kind of clutch scoring punch it has lacked in big playoff moments.

But Holiday still has plenty of value, and is a proven winner in the right situation. That situation just won't be Milwaukee anymore.

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