Draymond Green picked the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA Finals. After the Boston Celtics survived a furious fourth quarter comeback to take Game 3 106-99 and come within just one more victory of raising championship banner No. 18, though, the Golden State Warriors star made their ultimate triumph seem inevitable.
On the latest edition of his eponymous podcast, Green addressed Joel Embiid's mid-game tweet Wednesday night about the Milwaukee Bucks “giving” Boston the title by trading Jrue Holiday.
“Joel Embiid tweetin', ‘Did the Bucks give them the championship?' Them, being Boston. And the answer to Joel's question is yes, they actually did,” he said. “Because they traded Jrue away, and like I just think even in that trade, you gotta find or do all you can to like keep Jrue. Because Jrue can guard bigger, Jrue can play on the ball or off the ball, like there's no fit mismatch with Jrue and Dame, and I don't think Portland was hell-bent on getting Jrue Holiday. Ultimately, I think that's what they got, but I don't think they were hell bent on it being Jrue and I think there were some other things Milwaukee could've done to keep Jrue. But yes, [the Bucks] gave [the Celtics the championship].”
Milwaukee fell to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in the first round of last year's playoffs, a disappointing loss that—despite Giannis Antetokounmpo missing two games of the series due to injury—prompted major organizational changes. Mike Budenholzer was fired barely a week later, then the Bucks rocked the basketball world in October by acquiring Damian Lillard in a blockbuster trade that sent Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Milwaukee no doubt knew the rebuilding Blazers would be re-routing Holiday after sending him to Rip City. What's also safe to say is that general manager Jon Horst and company surely hadn't conceived of the Bucks' chief Eastern Conference rival winning the sweepstakes for Holiday, the cherry on top of a truly transformative offseason that has Boston on verge of hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time since 2008.
Jrue Holiday is Celtics' version of Warriors' Andre Iguodala
Holiday was a viable choice for Finals MVP after the first two games of the Finals, suffocating Kyrie Irving defensively while stuffing the stat sheet on efficient shooting without committing a single turnover. The Bill Russell Trophy is Jaylen Brown's to lose in wake of Game 3, and rightfully so. He's been the Celtics' best player throughout the postseason, taking his game to even greater heights with the championship on the line after winning Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
But Brown's sustained excellence hardly deflects from the massive two-way impact Holiday has provided on Boston's path to the Larry O'Brien Trophy. He's been favorably compared to Aaron Gordon and Andrew Wiggins of late, indispensable support pieces of the NBA's last two championship teams who were over-stretched as primary options earlier in their careers. There are definitely some parallels between what Holiday affords Boston and Gordon and Wiggins did the Denver Nuggets and Warriors on their respective runs to the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
An even more apt analogue for Holiday with which Dub Nation is intimately familiar? Andre Iguodala during his first few seasons in the Bay.
Like Holiday, Iguodala was an All-Star with his former team before he joined the Warriors ahead of the 2013-14 season. While Iguodala clearly had the physical tools, playmaking talent and natural feel to sop up offense usage on a good team, limitations as a shot-creator made it obvious he'd be better suited playing next to multiple stars, maximizing his innate gifts on both sides of the ball.
Does Golden State win its first three titles of the Stephen Curry era without Iguodala? Maybe. But there's no denying the elite, multi-positional defense, opportunistic scoring, connective passing/screening and all-around stylistic flexibility he gave the Warriors made Iguodala a central pillar of their dynasty.
Does that sound like anyone you know on the Celtics? Holiday and prime Iguodala, of course, are much more than generic role players. Once put in their most optimal positions to influence winning at the highest level, though, it became easier than ever for the basketball world to give Holiday and Iguodala the flowers they long deserved.
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