Celtics star addresses potential contract extension with team

Celtics guard Jrue Holiday isn’t yet eligible to sign a contract extension, but he’ll gain that eligibility before the end of the regular season, and he tells Brian Robb of MassLive.com that he hopes to get a deal done that will keep him in Boston going forward.

“I’d like to be here,” Holiday said. “I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable, loving the guys, loving the organization and loving the city.”

Holiday will become extension-eligible in approximately four weeks, but at that time he’ll only be able to sign a one- or two-year extension and won’t be able to receive a raise exceeding 5%. If he’s eyeing a longer-term contract — and/or a bigger raise — he’ll have to wait until April 1, which represents the six-month mark following his trade to the Celtics.

If he doesn’t reach an extension agreement with the Celtics, Holiday will have to make a decision this spring on a player option for 2024-25 worth approximately $39.4M (that option would have to be declined as part of an in-season extension). The expectation, league sources tell Robb, is that the 33-year-old would turn down the option in the hopes of securing a longer-term deal, even if he has to take a pay cut in the first year of that new contract.

However, Holiday is optimistic that he and the Celtics will be able to have productive extension discussions in April as they gear up for what they hope will be a deep postseason run.

“My last extension was during the course of the year,” said Holiday, who last signed an extension with the Bucks in April of 2021 (that season ended in mid-May). “I think that we can do both, talk about it and as well as prepare for games and prepare for what the future is.”

Given how well Holiday has fit in Boston this season, it seems safe to assume the Celtics will be eager to discuss a potential extension. Still, as Robb points out, it could be tricky to determine Holiday’s value as he enters his mid-30s, especially since his game has changed this season. His 17.2% usage rate as part of a loaded Celtics lineup is a career low and his 13.3 points per game are well below his career rate, but his 6.2 rebounds per game and 42.5% three-point percentage are career bests.

Holiday is one of the Celtics’ six most important players, and the other five — Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White and Al Horford — are already under contract for 2024-25 at a projected combined cost of approximately $143M. A new deal for Holiday figures to push Boston’s team salary well above the luxury-tax line, but based on how well the 35-10 C’s have played so far this season, ownership will presumably be prepared to pay up to keep this group intact.

“I think everybody kind of knows we’re set and we’re set for a long period,” Holiday said to Robb. “No matter what happens, you are going to come back here with the same guys for the most part. Things happen but I think you lock into that, being able to have that comfortability and just kind of that pressure off of you about what’s next.”