The former All-Star joins two-time Kia MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Bucks have officially acquired guard Jrue Holiday in a 4-team deal, the teams announced on Tuesday.
The Bucks add Holiday and Sam Merrill (the 60th overall pick in the 2020 Draft) in exchange for Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, three future first-round picks, and two additional Draft pick swaps.
Jrue is a Buck.#FearTheDeer | @Jrue_Holiday11 pic.twitter.com/LSdsrnzHlM
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) November 24, 2020
It is the second consecutive offseason in which New Orleans traded a standout for a haul of players and draft picks. In 2019, it was Anthony Davis to the Lakers in a move that saw reigning Most Improved Player Brandon Ingram and more coming to New Orleans; now, it’s Holiday to the Bucks. As part of the 4-team deal, the Pelicans will also acquire center Steven Adams from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Holiday will almost certainly make the Bucks better. Widely considered one of the best defenders in the NBA, he averaged 19.1 points and 6.7 assists last season and now joins Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton on a Milwaukee roster that will obviously look very different than it did this past season.
From everything you did on the court to everything you and @laurenholiday12 did for our community, we can never thank you enough.
You will always have a home in New Orleans, @Jrue_Holiday11 pic.twitter.com/SBTYJBYFuS
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 24, 2020
A two-time All-Defensive team honoree, Holiday shot 45.5% overall and 35.3% from 3-point range last season. The 30-year-old guard has averaged 19 points or better in each of the last three seasons.
Holiday was the 2019-20 winner of the NBA’s Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award. He announced in July that he would donate about $5 million in salary — what he earned after the NBA season restarted — to start a social justice fund with his wife, Lauren, a former soccer player for the U.S. Women’s National Team. The Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Justice Impact Fund primarily targets “socioeconomics inequalities across communities in New Orleans, the Los Angeles area and Indianapolis.” The money aids Black-owned businesses in those cities and others, as well as helps historically Black colleges and universities.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
