Jrue Holiday is at the peak of his game — an All-Star who averaged 19.3 points, 7.4 assists and 5.1 rebounds a game, plus making the All-Defensive team. He was the guy at the point for a team that just won 58 games and enters this season as a clear title contender.
Typically it’s a no-brainer for the Milwaukee Bucks to extend the contract of a player with those statistics — and Holiday is extension eligible starting Jan. 23 of next year — but Holiday is 33 years old and the Bucks see a pivot coming with their older core currently around Giannis Antetokounmpo. How deep the Bucks are willing to go into the luxury tax and how many years they want to pay Holiday will factor into the talks.
Holiday, for his part, wants to sign an extension and stay with the Bucks (and no, he’s not retiring in 2025), he told Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“Would love to [sign an extension],” he said. “Before I even won here I think I said I’m a Buck for life and I mean that like deep in my heart. I don’t want to play for any other team. I think we have a chance to continue to do great things as the Bucks team and organization so I want to be in Milwaukee.”
Holiday will make at least $34.9 million this season, with another $1.9 in likely incentives in his contract (and $4.4 million in unlikely incentives, meaning he didn’t reach that mark the season before). He has a $37.4 million player option (plus incentives) for next season and can be extended off that.
Whether the Bucks offer an extension come January could hinge on how Holiday plays and how the Bucks look — and it could impact Antetokounmpo’s decision to sign an extension next summer. Holiday wants to sign in Milwaukee because he wants to keep winning and believes it can happen with this team.
“So, being with the Bucks, having three of the best seasons I’ve had in my career, and not only that but having a winning record, being a top team or a top-three team, I don’t think I was ever on a top three-team until I came to the Bucks,” he said. “Growing up in the ‘90s and always hearing yeah, you’re one of the greatest if you win, so I’m thinking like, yeah, I’m that dude – or one of them – because of how I won, because we have won, and also because we’re on a winning team.”
The winning — and Holiday in a Bucks uniform — will continue this season. How much longer everything in Milwaukee stays together after that will be one of the most discussed topics around the NBA in the next 12 months. Holiday is right in the middle of it all.
