Evan Turner didn’t exactly tiptoe around the idea of Jrue Holiday ending up back in Philadelphia.
The former Celtics guard, who came through the Brad Stevens-Isaiah Thomas era in Boston, said flatly that if Holiday lands with the 76ers, that’s a championship move.
"If jrue holiday goes to Philly then that’s your 2027 nba champions
Don’t @ me"
That’s a bold line, but it’s not hard to see why Turner went there. Philadelphia already has plenty of star power after adding Jaylen Brown and LeBron James, yet the bigger question is whether the roster has enough of the gritty, connective pieces that make a contender work.
The Sixers’ top-end talent is obvious. What still matters is the stuff that happens away from the spotlight: defense, spacing, extra passing, and the kind of steady play that keeps a team from wobbling when the game gets tight.
Holiday fits that profile almost too neatly. Boston made a major push for him in 2023 for a reason, and he gave them exactly the sort of impact title teams crave.
He’s done the same for the Bucks, and even now, in his mid-30s, he still checks the boxes that matter. Portland, for its part, has had no reason to regret bringing him in when it did.
That’s what makes the fit in Philadelphia so easy to imagine. Holiday could defend at a high level, stretch the floor for the team’s scorers, add some complementary playmaking, and give Brown a familiar partner alongside him. On paper, it’s the kind of addition that would push the Sixers right to the front of the title race.
But there’s a catch, and it’s a big one: how would Philadelphia actually get him?
Holiday just finished a solid season in Portland, and while he’s aging, the decline has been slow - more like Al Horford’s pace than a sudden drop-off. The Trail Blazers are not likely to simply hand him over, and if they did move him, the price would be real. The Sixers would need to match salary and put together enough assets to make the deal happen.
That’s where the dream gets complicated. If Portland wasn’t willing to pay up for Brown a few weeks ago, it’s tough to imagine them making life easier now by sending Holiday to Philadelphia.
Boston’s original path to Holiday was helped by a chain of fortunate breaks: Milwaukee sent him to Portland in the Damian Lillard deal, and Portland didn’t need him at that point. Then Boston benefited when the Blazers moved him for as little as possible so the Celtics could get under the NBA’s second tax apron.
Philadelphia has already gotten plenty of good fortune this summer. Holiday would be the final piece in a very appealing puzzle. The problem is that unless Portland has a strong reason to move him - and the source of this reporting says it doesn’t - he’s probably staying put.
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What makes this one especially interesting is how quickly the talk has turned from the Warriors internal problems to the possibility of a stunning change of scenery for Curry. Around the league, some have floated the idea that Golden State could eventually have to choose between honoring what Curry has done and loading up for the future, and that uncertainty alone has put the Celtics into the middle of the speculation. It is the kind of idea that sounds far-fetched until it doesnt, which is exactly why it has started getting real attention. [Read more 🡒]