The Boston Celtics are at a crossroads. When their franchise cornerstone, Jayson Tatum, went down with an Achilles tear in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, it was more than just this season that was ruined. Tatum’s recovery will likely take most, if not all, of next season and the Celtics are going to need to make some bold offseason decisions.
The biggest decision they will have to make is which member of last year's championship team they will keep moving forward.
The Celtics are looking at a projected $500 million payroll next season, a number that is not reasonable for a team with unlikely championship hopes.
The question is, who do they trade? The Stein Line's Marc Stein reported: “The Celtics’ precise determination to keep their various veterans is difficult to calculate so soon after the defending champions’ Round 2 exit to the Knicks in six games and the devastating loss of Jayson Tatum to an Achilles rupture, but the early projections in circulation suggest Boston is more apt to make Jrue Holiday available via trade this offseason than Derrick White.”
Both Holiday and White are key pieces to the Celtics' championship core, but Stein believes that Holiday is more likely to be traded than White this offseason.
Holiday saw a big dropoff in production this season. He went from 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists on nearly 43% shooting from three to 11.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and shooting 35.3% from three.
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The Celtics may be seeing the writing on the wall that Holiday, who is still owed over $100 million over the next three seasons, may be on the natural decline of a 34-year-old guard.
Although losing Holiday would still be a significant blow, they instead may opt to keep the 30-year-old White.