CelticsBlog exit interview: Jrue Holiday

After a first season where all went well for Jrue Holiday in the Celtics uniform, the second act was a disappointment. His individual performances and collective impact went downhill from 2023–24 to 2024–25, and despite his best effort, he couldn’t replicate the footprint he had last year. That being said, what were the root causes behind this underperforming season? Looking back, there were both contextual reasons and individual causes.

A new treatment

Holiday this season had to deal with a new treatment from opposing defenses. Indeed, starting in December 2024 with the Memphis Grizzlies, teams began to consider Holiday a non-shooting threat and invited him to shoot from beyond the arc. Therefore, his 3-point volume kept growing, with 51% of his shot attempts coming from that area. However, the shooting efficiency dropped drastically. Even before he injured his finger, Holiday’s shooting accuracy was far below what he delivered the previous year, and opposing teams kept capitalizing on that.

The previous season, he was considered deadly from the corners, with 60% accuracy from there. This season, on a bigger volume, he made only 30% of his attempts from the corner during the regular season. While his real level is likely somewhere between these two marks, his inability to prove opposing defenses wrong cost the Celtics their spacing with him on the floor. In the 15 games the Celtics lost while he played, he shot 19% from beyond the arc on more than 5 attempts per game.

This shooting slump had an obvious offensive impact—but not only. The issue forced Joe Mazzulla and his coaching staff to give more clutch minutes and 4th-quarter responsibilities to Payton Pritchard. Offensively, it was a tremendous boost and a great alternative to deal with the Jrue shooting enigma. However, with Pritchard on the floor, the Celtics’ unbreakable defense became a bit more shaky. Teams usually go after the 6th Man of the Year—and despite his best effort and relentless work—he is still a 6’1” guard who can be targeted. The Celtics’ defensive rating was 110.2 points per 100 possessions with Jrue Holiday on the floor, 112.8 with Payton Pritchard instead. It’s still good, but not as elite.

While the shooting is concerning—but could bounce back, because that’s how variance works—what might be trickier to deal with is his inability to drive or create from the situations where opponents left him open. His driving, which I thought was back…