Why Jrue Holiday believes Celtics have a ‘head start’ over rest of NBA in 2024-25

"It's always hard to win one, but then to win back-to-back is even harder."

Jrue Holiday and the Celtics are set to return most of their roster from the 2023-24 season. (Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff)

By Conor Ryan

August 28, 2024

3 minutes to read

Jrue Holiday and the Celtics are well-aware that they will have a target on their backs during the 2024-25 season.

Such is the case with every defending champion, making the road toward back-to-back titles even more daunting this winter.

But after losing just three total playoff games en route to an 18th title earlier this summer, an already dominant Celtics team is poised to once again perch itself atop the NBA thanks to a largely intact roster.

While most championship teams are usually sapped of talent in the subsequent offseason due to free-agent exits and cap-centered deals, the Celtics made a concerted effort to bring back most of the same group for their title defense.

In total, 15 of the 17 players from last season’s run are still on the Celtics roster.

After handing Jrue Holiday a four-year, $135 million extension just before the start of the playoffs, Boston doled out a pair of long-term extensions to two other starters in Jayson Tatum (five years, $315 million) and Derrick White (four years, $126 million) during the offseason.

Boston also re-signed bench players in Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and Neemias Queta — while also brining back JD Davison and Drew Peterson on two-way deals. The only players from Boston’s playoff roster not set to return are Oshae Brissett and Svi Mykhailiuk, who were not part of Joe Mazzulla’s playoff rotation during the spring.

Beyond the evident skill and championship pedigree that Boston is set to feature this upcoming season, Holiday believes that the cohesion already in place with the Celtics’ roster should benefit them once the season gets underway.

“I think it’s going to help a lot,” Holiday said Wednesday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Raising Cane’s location at Downtown Crossing. “It’s always hard to win one, but then to win back-to-back is even harder.

“So I think just kind of getting a head start on other teams, possibly, where we have the continuity and the goal that we wanted for the end of the season — it ended up happening for us, but to be able to go into the next season locked in and doing the same thing (will help).”

The Celtics will still face plenty of challenges as they look to become the first team to win two-straight NBA titles since the Warriors accomplished the feat in 2017 and 2018.

Boston likely won’t have star big man Kristaps Porzingis for the first two-plus months of the season after undergoing ankle surgery in late June. And even after the 7-foot-2 Porzingis does return to the parquet floor, the case can be made that Boston should limit his minutes until the calendar flips to the postseason.

Add in other Eastern Conference contenders like the 76ers and Knicks loading up this offseason in hopes of unseating Boston, and the Celtics should expect plenty of hurdles during the upcoming season.

Still, Holiday believes that the experience that Boston’s battle-tested roster gained this past spring should serve them well moving forward — as will the internal motivation to defend their title following a summer of celebration.

“I’m from L.A. I grew up a Lakers fan. So putting on the green was a bit weird for me, like on the first day,” Holiday said of first joining Boston. “And then once I kind of got used to the green — we win the championship. … Once I kind of just got acclimated to the city, and the fans — this [championship], it’s crazy. I feel like I keep on saying that, but there’s no word that can describe the feeling when you win that championship.”