An important domino may be falling for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Bucks guard Jrue Holiday spoke this week with Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and made some important comments about his future with the team. Namely, Holiday voiced his desire to retire as a Buck.
“[I] would love to,” Holiday was quoted as saying. “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. We have a chance to continue to do great things as the Bucks team and organization, so I want to be in Milwaukee.”
The Bucks only have Holiday under contract for one more guaranteed season (he holds a $37.4 million player option for 2024-25). But Holiday will be eligible for a new extension with Milwaukee come the winter, and it sounds like he would be eager to sign one.
Holiday has been a rock for the Bucks over his three seasons with them (including for their NBA title in 2021). He regularly draws the toughest perimeter defensive assignments and provides quietly dynamic offensive output (averaging 19.3 points and 7.4 assists per game last year). Holiday’s impact also goes beyond the court as he is a very beloved team figure who has won three NBA Teammate of the Year Awards.
Of course, Holiday is now a 33-year-old who is entering Year 15 in the NBA. That means it is not a foregone conclusion that the Bucks would want to fork over big money for Holiday into his mid-to-late 30s. But it is still a major plus for Milwaukee that Holiday is expressing a desire to stick around, especially given what that could mean for one of their star players.
