Jrue Holiday Unanimous Selection For Honor In Preseason Coaches’ Poll

Jrue Holiday has been selected to an NBA All-Defensive team in five of the past six seasons, and league executives believe that trend will continue during Holiday’s first campaign with the Boston Celtics.

In a preseason coaches poll conducted by The Athletic, Holiday was the only unanimous All-Defensive First Team selection. He earned 12 first-team votes from 12 anonymous coaches.

Holiday has been named a First Team All-Defense selection three times.

“I think he’s one of the best on-ball pick-and-roll defenders,” an Eastern Conference assistant coach told The Athletic before the Celtics acquired Holiday in a trade Oct. 1.

Boston landed Holiday in a deal with the Trail Blazers after the Milwaukee Bucks dealt the veteran guard to Portland.

“From a coach’s perspective, I view it also as when you’re approaching a team and preparing for a team, who do you have to game plan for? And Jrue is one of those guys, with his ability to guard the ball, to pressure the ball and disrupt an offense,” the coach told The Athletic.

“We all spend so much time covering the other team’s offensive sets or offensive plays and players, but he’s one of those guys you have to prepare for when you’re going in to play (the Celtics) and the kind of defender he is, just making sure you have your pressure releases. He can take a team out of their offense single-handedly.”

Holiday was named a First Team All-Defense during the 2022-23 campaign with the Milwaukee Bucks. He received 94 First Team votes and four Second Team votes.

Media members are the ones who vote for those honors as coaches have not voted for All-Defense since the 2012-13 campaign, per The Athletic.

“Our polling suggests that, compared to other guards, coaches value Holiday as much as they have ever valued him,” The Athletic wrote.

Holiday is 25-1 to win NBA Defensive Player of the Year entering the 2023-24 season, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. He’s also +450 to be named First Team All-Defense on DraftKings Sportsbook.