Chicago Bulls: 3 takeaways from the Justin Holiday trade
On Thursday, the Chicago Bulls dealt swingman Justin Holiday to the Memphis Grizzlies. Here are three takeaways from the trade.
After a dreadful 10-28 start to the season that has seen incredible lows and very few highs, it has been an assumption that at some point, the Chicago Bulls would be making some roster adjustments. After all, it’s been clear from their performance on the court and the drama of it that this jumbled mess of a season was not all exiled coach Fred Hoiberg‘s fault, as the team has lost nine of 14 games under new coach Jim Boylen.
Boylen is also not entirely to blame for the chaotic season either. The Bulls feature one of the youngest rosters in the league and youth and inexperience rarely are a recipe for instant success. Now, the front office has traded away one of its few veteran voices in the locker room in Justin Holiday.
That the team traded Holiday is hardly a surprise. What was most surprising was the role Holiday was playing for Chicago in the first place. The 29-year-old swingman is the epitome of an NBA journeyman, having bounced around the league, from Philadelphia to Golden State to Atlanta to Chicago to New York and back to Chicago.
This season though, the Bulls relied on him as if he was an established NBA star. After Thursday’s trade, Holiday, one of three Holiday brothers in the NBA (Jrue Holiday with the New Orleans Pelicans, Aaron Holiday with the Indiana Pacers) is now headed to the Memphis Grizzlies.
In 38 games for the Bulls this season, all starts, Holiday averaged a team-high 34.9 minutes per game while shooting 7.1 3-pointers per game, also leading the team. In his sixth NBA season, the 6’6″ Holiday was shooting 35.9 percent from long range and 38.3 percent from the floor overall. The 38.3 percent from the floor was the second-worst mark of his career, topping only last year’s 37.1 percent showing (for a full season, Holiday shot 33.3 percent in nine games for Philadelphia in 2012-13).
After the trade, let’s take a look at three takeaways from the deal sending Holiday to Memphis for MarShon Brooks, Wayne Selden, a second round pick in 2019 and a second round pick in 2020.