Grade the Trade: Jrue Holiday routed to Warriors in mock deal

Laying out a Jrue Holiday trade for the Warriors

The Portland Trail Blazers traded Damian Lillard for Jrue Holiday, Grayson Allen, a high-upside unprotected pick in 2029 and a pair of swaps in ’28 and ’30 (Allen was then routed to Phoenix with other pieces for Deandre Ayton in the same deal). That gives a general framework for a Jrue Holiday deal, setting the market for how much his value may come under Lillard’s.

That doesn’t mean it will be inexpensive entirely to add Holiday who was an All-Star last season and one of the league’s best defensive guards. It’s also worth pointing out that Holiday cannot be aggregated with any other salary on his end, so the Warriors or any other team trading for him would only be getting him back from Portland.

To match the salary of Holiday as a team above the second tax apron, the Warriors would need to come within 10 percent of Holiday’s salary. If we assume they won’t trade Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins or Klay Thompson, there’s only one realistic path to a deal, and that’s moving Chris Paul and one of their smaller salaries.

Here’s what the deal could look like:

Jonathan Kuminga becomes a high-upside swing for the Trail Blazers, a team that can groom him to replace Jerami Grant after the Trade Deadline. The 2028 first and ’29 swaps are also about playing the upside, as the Warriors could be quite bad by that point as their core finally ages out of contention and perhaps even the playoffs. Paul is an expiring salary, and he likely is either waived or flipped again to another team (would the Miami Heat be interested?).

What do the Warriors think about this trade?